Description
We have performed ground-based transmission spectroscopy of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-18b using the ACAM instrument on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). Differential spectroscopy over an entire night was carried out at a resolution of R~400 using a nearby comparison star. We detect a bluewards slope extending across our optical transmission spectrum which runs from 4750{AA} to 9250{AA}. The slope is consistent with Rayleigh scattering at the equilibrium temperature of the planet (852K). We do not detect enhanced sodium absorption, which indicates a high altitude haze is masking the feature and giving rise to the Rayleigh slope. This is only the second discovery of a Rayleigh scattering slope in a hot Jupiter atmosphere from the ground, and our study illustrates how ground-based observations can provide transmission spectra with precision comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
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