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WorksPhysics and Astronomy

Granulation in Color: The Chromatic Stellar Flicker of LTT-9779 and WASP-121

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Abstract · v1

Granulation is a persistent feature of stars with outer convective layers and is the photospheric signature of near-surface convective energy transport. In disk-integrated observations, it produces stochastic brightness variations that contribute substantially to stellar variability on timescales of minutes to hours. High-precision, observations with JWST provide an opportunity to study the chromatic signatures of stellar granulation. This work aims to measure the amplitude and characteristic timescale of granulation-induced variability for solar-type stars and to investigate whether the granulation signal shows significant chromatic variation in the near-infrared. We accessed publicly available JWST/NIRISS SOSS time-series observations of LTT-9779 (G7V) and WASP-121 (F6V) and de-trended the light curves by fitting the transits, eclipses, and planetary phase curves. We computed power spectra from the de-trended light curves and fit them with a Harvey granulation profile. We first analyzed the broadband light curves to measure and fix the granulation timescale and then repeated the power-spectrum analysis in individual wavelength channels to measure the chromatic dependence of the granulation amplitude. For LTT-9779, we measure a broadband granulation amplitude of σ=53.8−4.0+4.1=53.8^{+4.1}_{-4.0}ppm at a timescale of τ=4.8−1.3+1.5=4.8^{+1.5}_{-1.3}min. For WASP-121, we measure σ=59.3±4.3=59.3\pm4.3ppm and τ=6.3−1.8+2.1=6.3^{+2.1}_{-1.8}min. We also measure peak oscillation frequencies of ν=3382−191+166μ=3382^{+166}_{-191}μHz and 1649−69+55μ1649^{+55}_{-69}μHz in the bandpass-integrated power spectra of LTT-9779 and WASP-121, respectively. In the spectroscopic fits, we find σσ decreases with wavelength. Our results demonstrate a new observational window on short-timescale stellar variability and provides a way to characterize chromatic stellar noise in transit light curves.

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