Papers › Sulphur dioxide in the mid-infrared transmission spectrum of WASP-39b
Sulphur dioxide in the mid-infrared transmission spectrum of WASP-39b
Diana Powell, Adina D. Feinstein, Elspeth K. H. Lee, Michael Zhang, Shang-Min Tsai, Jake Taylor, James Kirk, Taylor Bell, Joanna K. Barstow, Peter Gao, Jacob L. Bean, Jasmina Blecic, Katy L. Chubb, Ian J. M. Crossfield, Sean Jordan, Daniel Kitzmann, Sarah E. Moran, Giuseppe Morello, Julianne I. Moses, Luis Welbanks, Jeehyun Yang, Xi Zhang, Eva-Maria Ahrer, Aaron Bello-Arufe, Jonathan Brande, S. L. Casewell, Nicolas Crouzet, Patricio E. Cubillos, Brice-Olivier Demory, Achrène Dyrek, Laura Flagg, Renyu Hu, Julie Inglis, Kathryn D. Jones, Laura Kreidberg, Mercedes López-Morales, Pierre-Olivier Lagage, Erik A. Meier Valdés, Yamila Miguel, Vivien Parmentier, Anjali A. A. Piette, Benjamin V. Rackham, Michael Radica, Seth Redfield, Kevin B. Stevenson, Hannah R. Wakeford, Keshav Aggarwal, Munazza K. Alam, Natalie M. Batalha, Natasha E. Batalha, Björn Benneke, Zach K. Berta-Thompson, Ryan P. Brady, Claudio Caceres, Aarynn L. Carter, Jean-Michel Désert, Joseph Harrington, Nicolas Iro, Michael R. Line, Joshua D. Lothringer, Ryan J. MacDonald, Luigi Mancini, Karan Molaverdikhani, Sagnick Mukherjee, Matthew C. Nixon, Apurva V. Oza, Enric Palle, Zafar Rustamkulov, David K. Sing, Maria E. Steinrueck, Olivia Venot, Peter J. Wheatley, Sergei N. Yurchenko
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The recent inference of sulphur dioxide (SO₂) in the atmosphere of the hot (∼1100 K), Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b from near-infrared JWST observations suggests that photochemistry is a key process in high temperature exoplanet atmospheres. This is due to the low (<1 ppb) abundance of SO₂ under thermochemical equilibrium, compared to that produced from the photochemistry of H₂O and H₂S (1-10 ppm). However, the SO₂ inference was made from a single, small molecular feature in the transmission spectrum of WASP-39b at 4.05 μm, 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 μm in the 5-12 μm transmission spectrum of WASP-39b measured by the JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS). Our observations suggest an abundance of SO₂ of 0.5-25 ppm (1σ range), consistent with previous findings. In addition to SO₂, we find broad water vapour absorption features, as well as an unexplained decrease in the transit depth at wavelengths longer than 10 μm. Fitting the spectrum with a grid of atmospheric forward models, we derive an atmospheric heavy element content (metallicity) for WASP-39b of ∼7.1-8.0 × solar and demonstrate that photochemistry shapes the spectra of WASP-39b across a broad wavelength range.
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