Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 October 2007
Precision closure phase measurements obtained with ground-based long baselineoptical interferometers is a promising way to directly detect light from nearbyhot Jupiters. Here we present our closure phase simulations for the CHARA arrayfor several bright hot Jupiters, υ And b, 51 Peg b, and τBoo b. The maximum possible closure phase signals from these hot Jupiters arevery small, for example, only ∼0.17 degrees for υ And b,requiring very high precision and stable closure phase measurements. We presentpreliminary results of a closure phase study on test object β Tau andhot Jupiter system υ And, both obtained with the MIRC instrument atthe CHARA array. We demonstrate that directly detecting the light from hotJupiters is feasible using high precision closure phase measurements obtained byCHARA-MIRC along with its sub-milli-arcsecond resolution, although challengesremain.