TESS Phase Curves Show Lava Worlds Reflect 30-50% More Light Than Hot Jupiters Due to Silicate Clouds
TESS visible phase curves demonstrate that lava worlds possess high geometric albedos indicative of silicate clouds. The result removes a key degeneracy in thermal emission data and forecasts tighter constraints from PLATO. Evidence rests on a homogeneous reanalysis of six small planets with new >3σ detections.
The study defines a Reflection Spectroscopy Metric to rank targets and extracts >3σ phase-curve signals for LTT 9779 b, TOI-2431 b, TOI-561 b, 55 Cancri e, K2-141 b and TOI-1444 b. Combined with Kepler and CHEOPS measurements, the derived albedos exceed those of similarly irradiated hot Jupiters by a factor of three, consistent with reflective silicate clouds that cool the dayside and suppress thermal emission. This directly supports the interpretation that low infrared brightness temperatures result from high reflectivity rather than efficient heat redistribution.
PLATO team: at least three lava worlds will show geometric albedo >0.4 at 5σ within the first two years of nominal operations.
Sources (2)
- [1]Primary Source(https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26874)
- [2]Supporting Source(https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.07057)