Bibcode
Rustamkulov, Z.; Sing, D. K.; Mukherjee, S.; May, E. M.; Kirk, J.; Schlawin, E.; Line, M. R.; Piaulet, C.; Carter, A. L.; Batalha, N. E.; Goyal, J. M.; López-Morales, M.; Lothringer, J. D.; MacDonald, R. J.; Moran, S. E.; Stevenson, K. B.; Wakeford, H. R.; Espinoza, N.; Bean, J. L.; Batalha, N. M.; Benneke, B.; Berta-Thompson, Z. K.; Crossfield, I. J. M.; Gao, P.; Kreidberg, L.; Powell, D. K.; Cubillos, P. E.; Gibson, N. P.; Leconte, J.; Molaverdikhani, K.; Nikolov, N. K.; Parmentier, V.; Roy, P.; Taylor, J.; Turner, J. D.; Wheatley, P. J.; Aggarwal, K.; Ahrer, E.; Alam, M. K.; Alderson, L.; Allen, N. H.; Banerjee, A.; Barat, S.; Barrado, D.; Barstow, J. K.; Bell, T. J.; Blecic, J.; Brande, J.; Casewell, S.; Changeat, Q.; Chubb, K. L.; Crouzet, N.; Daylan, T.; Decin, L.; Désert, J.; Mikal-Evans, T.; Feinstein, A. D.; Flagg, L.; Fortney, J. J.; Harrington, J.; Heng, K.; Hong, Y.; Hu, R.; Iro, N.; Kataria, T.; Kempton, E. M. -R.; Krick, J.; Lendl, M.; Lillo-Box, J.; Louca, A.; Lustig-Yaeger, J.; Mancini, L.; Mansfield, M.; Mayne, N. J.; Miguel, Y.; Morello, G.; Ohno, K.; Palle, E.; Petit dit de la Roche, D. J. M.; Rackham, B. V.; Radica, M.; Ramos-Rosado, L.; Redfield, S.; Rogers, L. K.; Shkolnik, E. L.; Southworth, J.; Teske, J.; Tremblin, P.; Tucker, G. S.; Venot, O.; Waalkes, W. C.; Welbanks, L.; Zhang, X.; Zieba, S.
Bibliographical reference
Nature
Advertised on:
2
2023
Journal
Citations
100
Refereed citations
81
Description
Transmission spectroscopy1-3 of exoplanets has revealed signatures of water vapour, aerosols and alkali metals in a few dozen exoplanet atmospheres4,5. However, these previous inferences with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes were hindered by the observations' relatively narrow wavelength range and spectral resolving power, which precluded the unambiguous identification of other chemical species—in particular the primary carbon-bearing molecules6,7. Here we report a broad-wavelength 0.5-5.5 µm atmospheric transmission spectrum of WASP-39b8, a 1,200 K, roughly Saturn-mass, Jupiter-radius exoplanet, measured with the JWST NIRSpec's PRISM mode9 as part of the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Team Program10-12. We robustly detect several chemical species at high significance, including Na (19σ), H2O (33σ), CO2 (28σ) and CO (7σ). The non-detection of CH4, combined with a strong CO2 feature, favours atmospheric models with a super-solar atmospheric metallicity. An unanticipated absorption feature at 4 µm is best explained by SO2 (2.7σ), which could be a tracer of atmospheric photochemistry. These observations demonstrate JWST's sensitivity to a rich diversity of exoplanet compositions and chemical processes.
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Exoplanets and Astrobiology
The search for life in the universe has been driven by recent discoveries of planets around other stars (known as exoplanets), becoming one of the most active fields in modern astrophysics. The growing number of new exoplanets discovered in recent years and the recent advance on the study of their atmospheres are not only providing new valuable
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