High tide or riptide on the cosmic shoreline? A water-rich atmosphere or stellar contamination for the warm super-Earth GJ 486b from JWST observations
File(s)Moran_2023_ApJL_948_L11.pdf (1.95 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Planets orbiting M-dwarf stars are prime targets in the search for rocky exoplanet atmospheres. The small size of M dwarfs renders their planets exceptional targets for transmission spectroscopy, facilitating atmospheric characterization. However, it remains unknown whether their host stars' highly variable extreme-UV radiation environments allow atmospheres to persist. With JWST, we have begun to determine whether or not the most favorable rocky worlds orbiting M dwarfs have detectable atmospheres. Here, we present a 2.8–5.2 μm JWST NIRSpec/G395H transmission spectrum of the warm (700 K, 40.3× Earth's insolation) super-Earth GJ 486b (1.3 R⊕ and 3.0 M⊕). The measured spectrum from our two transits of GJ 486b deviates from a flat line at 2.2σ − 3.3σ, based on three independent reductions. Through a combination of forward and retrieval models, we determine that GJ 486b either has a water-rich atmosphere (with the most stringent constraint on the retrieved water abundance of H2O > 10% to 2σ) or the transmission spectrum is contaminated by water present in cool unocculted starspots. We also find that the measured stellar spectrum is best fit by a stellar model with cool starspots and hot faculae. While both retrieval scenarios provide equal quality fits (${\chi }_{\nu }^{2}=1.0$) to our NIRSpec/G395H observations, shorter wavelength observations can break this degeneracy and reveal if GJ 486b sustains a water-rich atmosphere.
Date Issued
2023-05-01
Date Acceptance
2023-04-07
Citation
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2023, 948, pp.1-14
ISSN
2041-8205
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Start Page
1
End Page
14
Journal / Book Title
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Volume
948
Copyright Statement
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further
distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title
of the work, journal citation and DOI.
of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further
distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title
of the work, journal citation and DOI.
License URL
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/accb9c
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
L11
Date Publish Online
2023-05-05