Detection of titanium oxide in the atmosphere of a hot Jupiter.

As an exoplanet transits its host star, some of the light from the star is absorbed by the atoms and molecules in the planet's atmosphere, causing the planet to seem bigger; plotting the planet's observed size as a function of the wavelength of the light produces a transmission spectrum. Measuring the tiny variations in the transmission spectrum, together with atmospheric modelling, then gives clues to the properties of the exoplanet's atmosphere. Chemical species composed of light elements-such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, sodium and potassium-have in this way been detected in the atmospheres of several hot giant exoplanets, but molecules composed of heavier elements have thus far proved elusive. Nonetheless, it has been predicted that metal oxides such as titanium oxide (TiO) and vanadium oxide occur in the observable regions of the very hottest exoplanetary atmospheres, causing thermal inversions on the dayside. Here we report the detection of TiO in the atmosphere of the hot-Jupiter planet WASP-19b. Our combined spectrum, with its wide spectral coverage, reveals the presence of TiO (to a confidence level of 7.7σ), a strongly scattering haze (7.4σ) and sodium (3.4σ), and confirms the presence of water (7.9σ) in the atmosphere.

An interacting binary system powers precessing outflows of an evolved star.

Stars are generally spherical, yet their gaseous envelopes often appear nonspherical when ejected near the end of their lives. This quirk is most notable during the planetary nebula phase, when these envelopes become ionized. Interactions among stars in a binary system are suspected to cause the asymmetry. In particular, a precessing accretion disk around a companion is believed to launch point-symmetric jets, as seen in the prototype Fleming 1. Our finding of a post-common-envelope binary nucleus in Fleming 1 confirms that this scenario is highly favorable. Similar binary interactions are therefore likely to explain these kinds of outflows in a large variety of systems.

DISCOVERY OF TWO VERY WIDE BINARIES WITH ULTRACOOL COMPANIONS AND A NEW BROWN DWARF AT THE L/T TRANSITION.

We present the discovery and spectroscopic follow-up of a nearby late-type L dwarf (2M0614+3950), and two extremely wide very-low-mass binary systems (2M0525-7425AB and 2M1348-1344AB), resulting from our search for common proper motion pairs containing ultracool components in the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) catalogs. The near-infrared spectrum of 2M0614+3950 indicates a spectral type L9 ± 1 object residing at a distance of 26.0 ± 1.8 pc. The optical spectrum of 2M0525-7425A reveals an M3.0 ± 0.5 dwarf primary, accompanied by a secondary previously classified as L2. The system has an angular separation of ~ 44″, equivalent to ~ 2000 AU at distance of 46.0 ± 3.0 pc. Using optical and infrared spectra, respectively, we classify the components of 2M1348-1344AB as M4.5 ± 0.5 and T5.5 ± 1. The angular separation of ~ 68″ is equivalent to ~ 1400 AU at a distance of 20.7 ± 1.4 pc. 2M1348-1344AB is one of only six very wide (separation > 1000 AU) systems containing late T dwarfs known to date.