_version_ 1866914870283206656
author Espinoza, Néstor
Steinrueck, Maria E.
Kirk, James
MacDonald, Ryan J.
Savel, Arjun B.
Arnold, Kenneth
Kempton, Eliza M. -R.
Murphy, Matthew M.
Carone, Ludmila
Zamyatina, Maria
Lewis, David A.
Samra, Dominic
Kiefer, Sven
Rauscher, Emily
Christie, Duncan
Mayne, Nathan
Helling, Christiane
Rustamkulov, Zafar
Parmentier, Vivien
May, Erin M.
Carter, Aarynn L.
Zhang, Xi
López-Morales, Mercedes
Allen, Natalie
Blecic, Jasmina
Decin, Leen
Mancini, Luigi
Molaverdikhani, Karan
Rackham, Benjamin V.
Palle, Enric
Tsai, Shang-Min
Ahrer, Eva-Maria
Bean, Jacob L.
Crossfield, Ian J. M.
Haegele, David
Hébrard, Eric
Kreidberg, Laura
Powell, Diana
Schneider, Aaron D.
Welbanks, Luis
Wheatley, Peter
Brahm, Rafael
Crouzet, Nicolas
author_facet Espinoza, Néstor
Steinrueck, Maria E.
Kirk, James
MacDonald, Ryan J.
Savel, Arjun B.
Arnold, Kenneth
Kempton, Eliza M. -R.
Murphy, Matthew M.
Carone, Ludmila
Zamyatina, Maria
Lewis, David A.
Samra, Dominic
Kiefer, Sven
Rauscher, Emily
Christie, Duncan
Mayne, Nathan
Helling, Christiane
Rustamkulov, Zafar
Parmentier, Vivien
May, Erin M.
Carter, Aarynn L.
Zhang, Xi
López-Morales, Mercedes
Allen, Natalie
Blecic, Jasmina
Decin, Leen
Mancini, Luigi
Molaverdikhani, Karan
Rackham, Benjamin V.
Palle, Enric
Tsai, Shang-Min
Ahrer, Eva-Maria
Bean, Jacob L.
Crossfield, Ian J. M.
Haegele, David
Hébrard, Eric
Kreidberg, Laura
Powell, Diana
Schneider, Aaron D.
Welbanks, Luis
Wheatley, Peter
Brahm, Rafael
Crouzet, Nicolas
contents Transmission spectroscopy has been a workhorse technique over the past two decades to constrain the physical and chemical properties of exoplanet atmospheres. One of its classical key assumptions is that the portion of the atmosphere it probes -- the terminator region -- is homogeneous. Several works in the past decade, however, have put this into question for highly irradiated, hot ($T_{eq}\gtrsim 1000$ K) gas giant exoplanets both empirically and via 3-dimensional modelling. While models predict clear differences between the evening (day-to-night) and morning (night-to-day) terminators, direct morning/evening transmission spectra in a wide wavelength range has not been reported for an exoplanet to date. Under the assumption of precise and accurate orbital parameters on WASP-39 b, here we report the detection of inhomogeneous terminators on the exoplanet WASP-39 b, which allows us to retrieve its morning and evening transmission spectra in the near-infrared ($2-5\ μ$m) using JWST. We observe larger transit depths in the evening which are, on average, $405 \pm 88$ ppm larger than the morning ones, also having qualitatively larger features than the morning spectrum. The spectra are best explained by models in which the evening terminator is hotter than the morning terminator by $177^{+65}_{-57}$ K with both terminators having C/O ratios consistent with solar. General circulation models (GCMs) predict temperature differences broadly consistent with the above value and point towards a cloudy morning terminator and a clearer evening terminator.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_10294
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Inhomogeneous terminators on the exoplanet WASP-39 b
Espinoza, Néstor
Steinrueck, Maria E.
Kirk, James
MacDonald, Ryan J.
Savel, Arjun B.
Arnold, Kenneth
Kempton, Eliza M. -R.
Murphy, Matthew M.
Carone, Ludmila
Zamyatina, Maria
Lewis, David A.
Samra, Dominic
Kiefer, Sven
Rauscher, Emily
Christie, Duncan
Mayne, Nathan
Helling, Christiane
Rustamkulov, Zafar
Parmentier, Vivien
May, Erin M.
Carter, Aarynn L.
Zhang, Xi
López-Morales, Mercedes
Allen, Natalie
Blecic, Jasmina
Decin, Leen
Mancini, Luigi
Molaverdikhani, Karan
Rackham, Benjamin V.
Palle, Enric
Tsai, Shang-Min
Ahrer, Eva-Maria
Bean, Jacob L.
Crossfield, Ian J. M.
Haegele, David
Hébrard, Eric
Kreidberg, Laura
Powell, Diana
Schneider, Aaron D.
Welbanks, Luis
Wheatley, Peter
Brahm, Rafael
Crouzet, Nicolas
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Transmission spectroscopy has been a workhorse technique over the past two decades to constrain the physical and chemical properties of exoplanet atmospheres. One of its classical key assumptions is that the portion of the atmosphere it probes -- the terminator region -- is homogeneous. Several works in the past decade, however, have put this into question for highly irradiated, hot ($T_{eq}\gtrsim 1000$ K) gas giant exoplanets both empirically and via 3-dimensional modelling. While models predict clear differences between the evening (day-to-night) and morning (night-to-day) terminators, direct morning/evening transmission spectra in a wide wavelength range has not been reported for an exoplanet to date. Under the assumption of precise and accurate orbital parameters on WASP-39 b, here we report the detection of inhomogeneous terminators on the exoplanet WASP-39 b, which allows us to retrieve its morning and evening transmission spectra in the near-infrared ($2-5\ μ$m) using JWST. We observe larger transit depths in the evening which are, on average, $405 \pm 88$ ppm larger than the morning ones, also having qualitatively larger features than the morning spectrum. The spectra are best explained by models in which the evening terminator is hotter than the morning terminator by $177^{+65}_{-57}$ K with both terminators having C/O ratios consistent with solar. General circulation models (GCMs) predict temperature differences broadly consistent with the above value and point towards a cloudy morning terminator and a clearer evening terminator.
title Inhomogeneous terminators on the exoplanet WASP-39 b
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.10294