Sulfur dioxide in the mid-infrared transmission spectrum of WASP-39b

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Powell, Diana; Feinstein, Adina D.; Lee, Elspeth K. H.; Zhang, Michael; Tsai, Shang-Min; Taylor, Jake; Kirk, James; Bell, Taylor; Barstow, Joanna K.; Gao, Peter; Bean, Jacob L.; Blecic, Jasmina; Chubb, Katy L.; Crossfield, Ian J. M.; Jordan, Sean; Kitzmann, Daniel; Moran, Sarah E.; Morello, Giuseppe; Moses, Julianne I.; Welbanks, Luis; Yang, Jeehyun; Zhang, Xi; Ahrer, Eva-Maria; Bello-Arufe, Aaron; Brande, Jonathan; Casewell, S. L.; Crouzet, Nicolas; Cubillos, Patricio E.; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Dyrek, Achrene; Flagg, Laura; Hu, Renyu; Inglis, Julie; Jones, Kathryn D.; Kreidberg, Laura; Lopez-Morales, Mercedes; Lagage, Pierre-Olivier; Meier Valdes, Erik A.; Miguel, Yamila; Parmentier, Vivien; Piette, Anjali A. A.; Rackham, Benjamin V.; Radica, Michael; Redfield, Seth; Stevenson, Kevin B.; Wakeford, Hannah R.; Aggarwal, Keshav; Alam, Munazza K.; Batalha, Natalie M.; Batalha, Natasha E.; Benneke, Bjoern; Berta-Thompson, Zach K.; Brady, Ryan P.; Caceres, Claudio; Carter, Aarynn L.; Desert, Jean-Michel; Harrington, Joseph; Iro, Nicolas; Line, Michael R.; Lothringer, Joshua D.; MacDonald, Ryan J.; Mancini, Luigi; Molaverdikhani, Karan; Mukherjee, Sagnick; Nixon, Matthew C.; Oza, Apurva V.; Palle, Enric; Rustamkulov, Zafar; Sing, David K.; Steinrueck, Maria E.; Venot, Olivia; Wheatley, Peter J.; Yurchenko, Sergei N.
• 署名单位: Smithsonian Institution; University of Chicago; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; University of Bern; University of California System; University of California Riverside; University of Oxford; Universite de Montreal; Universite de Montreal; Imperial College London; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Ames Research Center; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Ames Research Center; Open University - UK; Carnegie Institution for Science; New York University; New York University Abu Dhabi; New York University; New York University Abu Dhabi; University of St Andrews; University of Kansas; University of Cambridge; University of Arizona; Chalmers University of Technology; Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias; Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF); Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); California Institute of Technology; University of California System; University of California Santa Cruz; University of Warwick; University of Warwick; California Institute of Technology; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); University of Leicester; Leiden University; Leiden University - Excl LUMC; Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF); Austrian Academy of Sciences; University of Bern; Universite Paris Saclay; CEA; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite Paris Cite; Cornell University; Cornell University; California Institute of Technology; Max Planck Society; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite Cote d'Azur; Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Wesleyan University; Wesleyan University; Johns Hopkins University; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory; University of Bristol; Indian Institute of Technology System (IIT System); Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Indore; University of California System; University of California Santa Cruz; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Ames Research Center; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; University of London; University College London; Universidad Andres Bello; University of Amsterdam; State University System of Florida; University of Central Florida; State University System of Florida; University of Central Florida; Helmholtz Association; German Aerospace Centre (DLR); Utah System of Higher Education; Utah Valley University; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Rome Tor Vergata; University of Munich; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; Johns Hopkins University; Johns Hopkins University; Universite Paris Cite; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite Paris Cite; Universite Paris-Est-Creteil-Val-de-Marne (UPEC)
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-4875
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07040-9
• 发表日期: 2024-02-29
• 页码: 979-+
• 关键词: molecular line lists; collision-induced absorption; rotation-vibration spectrum; webb-space-telescope; rayleigh-scattering; bayesian-inference; model atmospheres; synthetic spectra; computer-program; gas-phase

摘要

The recent inference of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere of the hot (approximately 1,100K), Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b from near-infrared JWST observations(1-3) suggests that photochemistry is a key process in high-temperature exoplanet atmospheres(4). This is because of the low (<1ppb) abundance of SO2 under thermochemical equilibrium compared with that produced from the photochemistry of H2O and H2S (1-10ppm)(4-9). However, the SO2 inference was made from a single, small molecular feature in the transmission spectrum of WASP-39b at 4.05 mu m and, therefore, the detection of other SO2 absorption bands at different wavelengths is needed to better constrain the SO2 abundance. Here we report the detection of SO2 spectral features at 7.7 and 8.5 mu m in the 5-12-mu m transmission spectrum of WASP-39b measured by the JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS)(10). Our observations suggest an abundance of SO2 of 0.5-25ppm (1 sigma range), consistent with previous findings(4). As well as SO2, we find broad water-vapour absorption features, as well as an unexplained decrease in the transit depth at wavelengths longer than 10 mu m. Fitting the spectrum with a grid of atmospheric forward models, we derive an atmospheric heavy-element content (metallicity) for WASP-39b of approximately 7.1-8.0 times solar and demonstrate that photochemistry shapes the spectra of WASP-39b across a broad wavelength range.