  We determined the flux ratios of the heavy and eccentric planet XO-3b to its
parent star in the four IRAC bands of the Spitzer Space Telescope: 0.101% +-
0.004% at 3.6 micron; 0.143% +- 0.006% at 4.5 micron; 0.134% +- 0.049% at 5.8
micron and 0.150% +- 0.036% at 8.0 micron. The flux ratios are within
[-2.2,0.3, -0.8, -1.7]-sigma of the model of XO-3b with a thermally inverted
stratosphere in the 3.6 micron, 4.5 micron, 5.8 micron and 8.0 micron channels,
respectively. XO-3b has a high illumination from its parent star (Fp ~(1.9 -
4.2) x 10^9 ergs cm^-2 s^-1) and is thus expected to have a thermal inversion,
which we indeed observe. When combined with existing data for other planets,
the correlation between the presence of an atmospheric temperature inversion
and the substellar flux is insufficient to explain why some high insolation
planets like TrES-3 do not have stratospheric inversions and some low
insolation planets like XO-1b do have inversions. Secondary factors such as
sulfur chemistry, atmospheric metallicity, amounts of macroscopic mixing in the
stratosphere or even dynamical weather effects likely play a role. Using the
secondary eclipse timing centroids we determined the orbital eccentricity of
XO-3b as e = 0.277 +- 0.009. The model radius-age trajectories for XO-3b imply
that at least some amount of tidal-heating is required to inflate the radius of
XO-3b, and the tidal heating parameter of the planet is constrained to Qp <
10^6 .
