Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRSpec G395H
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Measuring the abundances of carbon and oxygen in exoplanet atmospheres is considered a crucial avenue for unlocking the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems1,2. Access to the chemical inventory of an exoplanet requires high-precision observations, often inferred from individual molecular detections with low-resolution space-based3,4,5 and high-resolution ground-based6,7,8 facilities. Here we report the medium-resolution (R ≈ 600) transmission spectrum of an exoplanet atmosphere between 3 and 5 μm covering several absorption features for the Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b (ref. 9), obtained with the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) G395H grating of JWST. Our observations achieve 1.46 times photon precision, providing an average transit depth uncertainty of 221 ppm per spectroscopic bin, and present minimal impacts from systematic effects. We detect significant absorption from CO2 (28.5σ) and H2O (21.5σ), and identify SO2 as the source of absorption at 4.1 μm (4.8σ). Best-fit atmospheric models range between 3 and 10 times solar metallicity, with sub-solar to solar C/O ratios. These results, including the detection of SO2, underscore the importance of characterizing the chemistry in exoplanet atmospheres and showcase NIRSpec G395H as an excellent mode for time-series observations over this critical wavelength range10.
Date Issued
2023-02-23
Date Acceptance
2022-11-24
Citation
Nature, 2023, 614 (7949), pp.664-669
ISSN
0028-0836
Publisher
Nature Research
Start Page
664
End Page
669
Journal / Book Title
Nature
Volume
614
Issue
7949
Copyright Statement
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution
and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence,
and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line
to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your
intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence,
visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
© The Author(s) 2023
4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution
and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence,
and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line
to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your
intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence,
visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
© The Author(s) 2023
License URL
Identifier
https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000951197700004&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=a2bf6146997ec60c407a63945d4e92bb
Subjects
ABUNDANCES
CHEMISTRY
DWARF
GIANT PLANETS
ISOTOPOLOGUES
METALLICITY
MODEL ATMOSPHERES
MOLECULAR LINE LISTS
Multidisciplinary Sciences
ROTATION-VIBRATION SPECTRUM
Science & Technology
Science & Technology - Other Topics
SULFUR
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2023-01-09