Characterizing Super-Mercuries by their infrared orbital photometry

International audienceThe photometric signal we receive from a star hosting a planet is modulated by the variation of the planet signal with its orbital phase. Already observed for giant exoplanets, those thermal phase curves should be measured with future telescopes (JWST and EChO) for hot rocky Super-Earths in transiting and nontransiting configurations. The nontransiting ones are the most numerous. We show here that we can infer from the thermal phase curve of a synchronous rocky airless exoplanet its radius, Bond albedo and the inclination of the orbit. When the orbit is eccentric, the planetary rotational period can be determined from the infrared photometric monitoring. Furthermore, the tidal dissipation within the planet can be constrained, that can allow us to improve tidal models