Primary Transit of the Planet HD 189733b at 3.6 and 5.8 μm

The hot Jupiter HD 189733b was observed during its primary transit using the Infrared Array Camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The transit depths were measured simultaneously at 3.6 and 5.8 μm. Our analysis yields values of 2.356% ± 0.019% and 2.436% ± 0.020% at 3.6 and 5.8 μm, respectively, for a uniform source. We estimated the contribution of the limb-darkening and starspot effects on the final results. We concluded that although the limb darkening increases by ~0.02%-0.03% the transit depths, the differential effects between the two IRAC bands is even smaller, 0.01%. Furthermore, the host star is known to be an active spotted K star with observed photometric modulation. If we adopt an extreme model of 20% coverage with spots 1000 K cooler of the star surface, it will make the observed transits shallower by 0.19% and 0.18%. The difference between the two bands will be only of 0.01%, in the opposite direction to the limb-darkening correction. If the transit depth is affected by limb darkening and spots, the differential effects between the 3.6 and 5.8 μm bands are very small. The differential transit depths at 3.6 and 5.8 μm and the recent one published by Knutson and coworkers) at 8 μm are in agreement with the presence of water vapor in the upper atmosphere of the planet. This is the companion paper to Tinetti et al., where the detailed atmosphere models are presented.