Bibcode
Pallé, E.; Montañś-Rodríguez, P.; Vazquez, M.; Ford, E. B.; Seager, S.
Bibliographical reference
Extreme Solar Systems, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 398, proceedings of the conference held 25-29 June, 2007, at Santorini Island, Greece. Edited by D. Fischer, F. A. Rasio, S. E. Thorsett, and A. Wolszczan, p.399
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2008
Citations
1
Refereed citations
0
Description
If we were to observe the light reflected from an extrasolar planet, the
portion of the planet reflecting starlight toward us would change due to
rotation and orbital motion. Reflected light will come from the planet's
surface, but also from the clouds and atmosphere. It is possible that
these two planetary components have different rotation speeds, and the
presence of clouds might result in so much variability that complicates
efforts to determine its rotational period. Here we show how the
differential rotation of the atmosphere/clouds is detectable even on
Earth for certain observing geometries.