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CRIRES+ and ESPRESSO Reveal an Atmosphere Enriched in Volatiles Relative to Refractories on the Ultrahot Jupiter WASP-121b

Pelletier, Stefan LU ; Benneke, Björn ; Chachan, Yayaati ; Bazinet, Luc ; Allart, Romain ; Hoeijmakers, H. Jens LU orcid ; Lavail, Alexis ; Prinoth, Bibiana LU orcid ; Coulombe, Louis Philippe and Lothringer, Joshua D. , et al. (2025) In Astronomical Journal 169(1).
Abstract

One of the outstanding goals of the planetary science community is to measure the present-day atmospheric composition of planets and link this back to formation. As giant planets are formed by accreting gas, ices, and rocks, constraining the relative amounts of these components is critical to understand their formation and evolution. For most known planets, including the solar system giants, this is difficult as they reside in a temperature regime where only volatile elements (e.g., C, O) can be measured, while refractories (e.g., Fe, Ni) are condensed to deep layers of the atmosphere where they cannot be remotely probed. With temperatures allowing for even rock-forming elements to be in the gas phase, ultrahot Jupiter atmospheres... (More)

One of the outstanding goals of the planetary science community is to measure the present-day atmospheric composition of planets and link this back to formation. As giant planets are formed by accreting gas, ices, and rocks, constraining the relative amounts of these components is critical to understand their formation and evolution. For most known planets, including the solar system giants, this is difficult as they reside in a temperature regime where only volatile elements (e.g., C, O) can be measured, while refractories (e.g., Fe, Ni) are condensed to deep layers of the atmosphere where they cannot be remotely probed. With temperatures allowing for even rock-forming elements to be in the gas phase, ultrahot Jupiter atmospheres provide a unique opportunity to simultaneously probe the volatile and refractory content of giant planets. Here, we directly measure and obtain bounded constraints on the abundances of volatile C and O as well as refractory Fe and Ni on the ultrahot giant exoplanet WASP-121b. We find that ice-forming elements are comparatively enriched relative to rock-forming elements, potentially indicating that WASP-121b formed in a volatile-rich environment much farther away from the star than where it is currently located. The simultaneous constraint of ice and rock elements in the atmosphere of WASP-121b provides insights into the composition of giant planets otherwise unattainable from solar system observations.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Astronomical Journal
volume
169
issue
1
article number
10
publisher
IOP Publishing
external identifiers
  • scopus:85219538499
ISSN
0004-6256
DOI
10.3847/1538-3881/ad8b28
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2024. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
id
455555d6-f834-4982-abaa-a269829f38a0
date added to LUP
2025-03-25 15:14:57
date last changed
2025-05-20 18:09:07
@article{455555d6-f834-4982-abaa-a269829f38a0,
  abstract     = {{<p>One of the outstanding goals of the planetary science community is to measure the present-day atmospheric composition of planets and link this back to formation. As giant planets are formed by accreting gas, ices, and rocks, constraining the relative amounts of these components is critical to understand their formation and evolution. For most known planets, including the solar system giants, this is difficult as they reside in a temperature regime where only volatile elements (e.g., C, O) can be measured, while refractories (e.g., Fe, Ni) are condensed to deep layers of the atmosphere where they cannot be remotely probed. With temperatures allowing for even rock-forming elements to be in the gas phase, ultrahot Jupiter atmospheres provide a unique opportunity to simultaneously probe the volatile and refractory content of giant planets. Here, we directly measure and obtain bounded constraints on the abundances of volatile C and O as well as refractory Fe and Ni on the ultrahot giant exoplanet WASP-121b. We find that ice-forming elements are comparatively enriched relative to rock-forming elements, potentially indicating that WASP-121b formed in a volatile-rich environment much farther away from the star than where it is currently located. The simultaneous constraint of ice and rock elements in the atmosphere of WASP-121b provides insights into the composition of giant planets otherwise unattainable from solar system observations.</p>}},
  author       = {{Pelletier, Stefan and Benneke, Björn and Chachan, Yayaati and Bazinet, Luc and Allart, Romain and Hoeijmakers, H. Jens and Lavail, Alexis and Prinoth, Bibiana and Coulombe, Louis Philippe and Lothringer, Joshua D. and Parmentier, Vivien and Smith, Peter and Borsato, Nicholas and Thorsbro, Brian}},
  issn         = {{0004-6256}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{IOP Publishing}},
  series       = {{Astronomical Journal}},
  title        = {{CRIRES<sup>+</sup> and ESPRESSO Reveal an Atmosphere Enriched in Volatiles Relative to Refractories on the Ultrahot Jupiter WASP-121b}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad8b28}},
  doi          = {{10.3847/1538-3881/ad8b28}},
  volume       = {{169}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}