Spatial characterization of the trailing and leading limbs of WASP-76b: Detection of H2O and HCN -- Alejandro (Alex) Sanchez-Lopez

Extreme temperature contrasts between the day and nightside of ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJ) result in significantly asymmetric atmospheres, with a region of extreme atmospheric expansion appearing over a small range of latitudes around the terminator. Over the course of a transit, WASP-76 b rotates by about 30'b0 and hence temporal variations of the observable atmosphere significantly affect the detectability of its constituents. Specifically, the trailing limb of this planet allows us to probe a significant portion of the inflated dayside, resulting in a higher atmospheric detectability. This geometric effect could mimic the observed time-variability of absorption signals due to condensation in the nightside of these planets, which has been recently reported for neutral iron in WASP-76 b. By studying molecules that are not expected to condense in the nightside of UHJs (~1000K), we can isolate the possible effect of different day and nightside scale heights. Here, we will analyze a stronger water vapor signal during the egress of the planet than at ingress, which cannot be explained by condensation and suggests that the extreme geometry of UHJ manifests as time-dependent absorption signals. Additionally, we report a redshifted HCN signature arising from the leading limb (i.e., observable in the first half of the transit and absent from the second half) and a weak evidence of ammonia using high-resolution observations of WASP-76 b with CARMENES.