Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRCam.

Ahrer, Eva-Maria; Stevenson, Kevin B; Mansfield, Megan; Moran, Sarah E; Brande, Jonathan; Morello, Giuseppe; Murray, Catriona A; Nikolov, Nikolay K; Petit Dit de la Roche, Dominique J M; Schlawin, Everett; Wheatley, Peter J; Zieba, Sebastian; Batalha, Natasha E; Damiano, Mario; Goyal, Jayesh M; Lendl, Monika; Lothringer, Joshua D; Mukherjee, Sagnick; Ohno, Kazumasa; Batalha, Natalie M; ... (2023). Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRCam. Nature, 614(7949), pp. 653-658. Springer Nature 10.1038/s41586-022-05590-4

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Measuring the metallicity and carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio in exoplanet atmospheres is a fundamental step towards constraining the dominant chemical processes at work and, if in equilibrium, revealing planet formation histories. Transmission spectroscopye.g., 1,2 provides the necessary means by constraining the abundances of oxygen- and carbon-bearing species; however, this requires broad wavelength coverage, moderate spectral resolution, and high precision that, together, are not achievable with previous observatories. Now that JWST has commenced science operations, we are able to observe exoplanets at previously uncharted wavelengths and spectral resolutions. Here we report time-series observations of the transiting exoplanet WASP-39b using JWST's Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). The long-wavelength spectroscopic and short-wavelength photometric light curves span 2.0 - 4.0 µm, exhibit minimal systematics, and reveal well-defined molecular absorption features in the planet's spectrum. Specifically, we detect gaseous H2O in the atmosphere and place an upper limit on the abundance of CH4. The otherwise prominent CO2 feature at 2.8 µm is largely masked by H2O. The best-fit chemical equilibrium models favour an atmospheric metallicity of 1-100× solar (i.e., an enrichment of elements heavier than helium relative to the Sun) and a sub-stellar carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio. The inferred high metallicity and low C/O ratio may indicate significant accretion of solid materials during planet formatione.g., 3,4 or disequilibrium processes in the upper atmospheree.g., 5,6.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

10 Strategic Research Centers > ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research

UniBE Contributor:

Heng, Kevin

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1476-4687

Publisher:

Springer Nature

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

12 Jan 2023 11:17

Last Modified:

11 Jul 2024 00:25

Publisher DOI:

10.1038/s41586-022-05590-4

PubMed ID:

36623551

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/177133

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/177133

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