CRIRES+ and ESPRESSO reveal an atmosphere enriched in volatiles relative to refractories on the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121b

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, ultra-hot 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 ultra-hot 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.

24 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal

References in corpus (101)

• Array Programming with NumPy
• The chemical make-up of the Sun: A 2020 vision
• petitRADTRANS: a Python radiative transfer package for exoplanet characterization and retrieval
• Formation of Hot Planets by a combination of planet scattering, tidal circularization, and Kozai mechanism
• ESPRESSO@VLT -- On-sky performance and first results
• Atmospheric Retrieval for Super-Earths: Uniquely Constraining the Atmospheric Composition with Transmission Spectroscopy
• Comparing Jupiter interior structure models to Juno gravity measurements and the role of a dilute core
• The imprint of exoplanet formation history on observable present-day spectra of hot Jupiters
• Spectrally resolved detection of sodium in the atmosphere of HD189733b with the HARPS spectrograph
• Nightside condensation of iron in an ultra-hot giant exoplanet
• Towards Chemical Constraints on Hot Jupiter Migration
• An ultrahot gas-giant exoplanet with a stratosphere
• Photochemically-produced SO${}_2$ in the atmosphere of WASP-39b
• Chemical enrichment of giant planets and discs due to pebble drift
• A Sub-Neptune Exoplanet with a Low-Metallicity Methane-Depleted Atmosphere and Mie-Scattering Clouds
• Aerosol Composition of Hot Giant Exoplanets Dominated by Silicates and Hydrocarbon Hazes
• A spectral survey of an ultra-hot Jupiter: Detection of metals in the transmission spectrum of KELT-9 b
• Mass-Metallicity Trends in Transiting Exoplanets from Atmospheric Abundances of H${}_2$O, Na, and K
• An accurate, extensive, and practical line list of methane for the HITEMP database
• ExoMol line lists XVIII. The high temperature spectrum of VO
• ExoMol line lists -- XXXIX. Ro-vibrational molecular line list for CO${}_2$
• Detection of Fe I in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121b, and a new likelihood-based approach for Doppler-resolved spectroscopy
• Tracing the formation history of giant planets in protoplanetary disks with Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Sulphur
• A solar C/O and sub-solar metallicity in a hot Jupiter atmosphere
• Five carbon- and nitrogen-bearing species in a hot giant planet's atmosphere
• Carbon monoxide and water vapor in the atmosphere of the non-transiting exoplanet HD 179949 b
• Setting the volatile composition of (exo)planet-building material. Does chemical evolution in disk midplanes matter?
• High Tide or Riptide on the Cosmic Shoreline? A Water-Rich Atmosphere or Stellar Contamination for the Warm Super-Earth GJ~486b from JWST Observations
• How drifting and evaporating pebbles shape giant planets I: Heavy element content and atmospheric C/O
• Hot Exoplanet Atmospheres Resolved with Transit Spectroscopy (HEARTS) IV. A spectral inventory of atoms and molecules in the high-resolution transmission spectrum of WASP-121 b
• HELIOS-K 2.0 Opacity Calculator and Open-source Opacity Database for Exoplanetary Atmospheres
• Planet formation with envelope enrichment: new insights on planetary diversity
• The water abundance in Jupiter's equatorial zone
• A broadband thermal emission spectrum of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-18b
• Discovery of water at high spectral resolution in the atmosphere of 51 Peg b
• Atmospheric Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and transmission spectroscopy of WASP-121b with ESPRESSO
• ExoMol molecular line lists -- XXXVII: spectra of acetylene
• Hot Exoplanet Atmospheres Resolved with Transit Spectroscopy (HEARTS) - II. A broadened sodium feature on the ultra-hot giant WASP-76b
• Hot Exoplanet Atmospheres Resolved with Transit Spectroscopy (HEARTS) III. Atmospheric structure of the misaligned ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121b
• Where is the Water? Jupiter-like C/H ratio but strong H${}_2$O depletion found on $\tau$ Boötis b using SPIRou
• Excess C/O and C/H in outer protoplanetary disk gas
• Titanium oxide and chemical inhomogeneity in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-189b
• FastChem 2: An improved computer program to determine the gas-phase chemical equilibrium composition for arbitrary element distributions
• Detection of sodium in the atmosphere of WASP-69b
• A High Internal Heat Flux and Large Core in a Warm Neptune Exoplanet
• A New Window into Planet Formation and Migration: Refractory-to-Volatile Elemental Ratios in Ultra-hot Jupiters
• Decomposing the Iron Cross-Correlation Signal of the Ultra-Hot Jupiter WASP-76b in Transmission using 3D Monte-Carlo Radiative Transfer
• An Atomic Spectral Survey of WASP-76b: Resolving Chemical Gradients and Asymmetries
• A warm Neptune's methane reveals core mass and vigorous atmospheric mixing
• Vanadium oxide and a sharp onset of cold-trapping on a giant exoplanet
• How drifting and evaporating pebbles shape giant planets II: Volatiles and refractories in atmospheres
• Connecting planet formation and astrochemistry: A main sequence for C/O in hot-exoplanetary atmospheres
• Chemical Diversity in Protoplanetary Disks and Its Impact on the Formation History of Giant Planets
• Searching for Thermal Inversion Agents in the Transmission Spectrum of MASCARA-2b/KELT-20b: Detection of Neutral Iron and Ionised Calcium H$\&$K Lines
• Non-detection of TiO and VO in the atmosphere of WASP-121b using high-resolution spectroscopy
• Empirical limb-darkening coefficients & transit parameters of known exoplanets from TESS
• Relative abundance constraints from high-resolution optical transmission spectroscopy of WASP-121b, and a fast model-filtering technique for accelerating retrievals
• CRIRES${}^{+}$ on sky at the ESO Very Large Telescope
• The Roasting Marshmallows Program with IGRINS on Gemini South I: Composition and Climate of the Ultra Hot Jupiter WASP-18 b
• Deep Atmosphere Composition, Structure, Origin, and Exploration, with Particular Focus on Critical in situ Science at the Icy Giants
• Breaking Degeneracies in Formation Histories by Measuring Refractory Content in Gas Giants
• First Detection of Hydroxyl Radical Emission from an Exoplanet Atmosphere: High-dispersion Characterization of WASP-33b using Subaru/IRD
• The Influence of Host Star Spectral Type on Ultra-Hot Jupiter Atmospheres
• Retrieval survey of metals in six ultra-hot Jupiters: Trends in chemistry, rain-out, ionisation and atmospheric dynamics
• ExoMol line lists -- XLIV. IR and UV line list for silicon monoxide (SiO)
• Diurnal variations in the stratosphere of the ultrahot giant exoplanet WASP-121b
• An inventory of atomic species in the atmosphere of WASP-121b using UVES high-resolution spectroscopy
• Confirmation of water emission in the dayside spectrum of the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-121b
• High-resolution Transmission Spectroscopy of MASCARA-2 b with EXPRES
• Carbon monoxide emission lines reveal an inverted atmosphere in the ultra hot Jupiter WASP-33 b consistent with an eastward hot spot
• Cloud property trends in hot and ultra-hot giant gas planets (WASP-43b, WASP-103b, WASP-121b, HAT-P-7b, and WASP-18b)
• HyDRA-H: Simultaneous Hybrid Retrieval of Exoplanetary Emission Spectra
• Jupiter's heavy-element enrichment expected from formation models
• Assessing the C/O Ratio Formation Diagnostic: A Potential Trend with Companion Mass
• The GAPS Programme at TNG. XLI. The climate of KELT-9b revealed with a new approach to high spectral resolution phase curves
• Volatile-to-sulfur Ratios Can Recover a Gas Giant's Accretion History
• WASP-127b transmission spectrum]{Abundance measurements of H${}_2$O and carbon-bearing species in the atmosphere of WASP-127b confirm its super-solar metallicity
• The GAPS Programme at TNG XXXVIII. Five molecules in the atmosphere of the warm giant planet WASP-69b detected at high spectral resolution
• CO or no CO? Narrowing the CO abundance constraint and recovering the H2O detection in the atmosphere of WASP-127 b using SPIRou
• High-resolution atmospheric retrievals of WASP-121b transmission spectroscopy with ESPRESSO: Consistent relative abundance constraints across multiple epochs and instruments
• UV Exoplanet Transmission Spectral Features as Probes of Metals and Rainout
• The Mantis Network III: Expanding the limits of chemical searches within ultra hot-Jupiters. New detections of Ca I, V I, Ti I, Cr I, Ni I, Sr II, Ba II, and Tb II in KELT-9 b
• A JWST NIRSpec Phase Curve for WASP-121b: Dayside Emission Strongest Eastward of the Substellar Point and Nightside Conditions Conducive to Cloud Formation
• Efficiency of Planetesimal Ablation in Giant Planetary Envelopes
• CRIRES+ detection of CO emissions lines and temperature inversions on the dayside of WASP-18b and WASP-76b
• The GAPS Programme at TNG XXXIX -- Multiple molecular species in the atmosphere of the warm giant planet WASP-80 b unveiled at high resolution with GIANO-B
• Is the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121b variable?
• H- and Dissociation in Ultra-hot Jupiters: A Retrieval Case Study of WASP-18b
• SimAb: A simple, fast and flexible model to assess the effects of planet formation on the atmospheric composition of gas giants
• The PHOENIX Exoplanet Retrieval Algorithm and Using H${}^{-}$ Opacity as a Probe in Ultra-hot Jupiters
• Unifying High- and Low-resolution Observations to Constrain the Dayside Atmosphere of KELT-20b/MASCARA-2b
• Retrieval of the dayside atmosphere of WASP-43b with CRIRES+
• A quantitative assessment of the VO line list: Inaccuracies hamper high-resolution VO detections in exoplanet atmospheres
• Oxygen depletion in giant planets with different formation histories
• High-resolution emission spectroscopy retrievals of MASCARA-1b with CRIRES+: Strong detections of CO, H${}_2$O and Fe emission lines and a C$/$O consistent with solar
• Super-adiabatic Temperature Gradient at Jupiter's Equatorial Zone and Implications for the Water Abundance
• A sub-solar metallicity on the ultra-short period planet HIP 65Ab
• Evolution of the reservoirs of volatiles in the protosolar nebula
• Highly depleted alkali metals in Jupiter's deep atmosphere
• High-resolution atmospheric retrievals of WASP-76b transmission spectroscopy with ESPRESSO: Monitoring limb asymmetries across multiple transits
• The nature and composition of Jupiter's building blocks derived from the water abundance measurements by the Juno spacecraft

Cited by in corpus (23)

• NIRPS joining HARPS at ESO 3.6 m. On-sky performance and science objectives
• Time Resolved Absorption of Six Chemical Species With MAROON-X Points to Strong Drag in the Ultra Hot Jupiter TOI-1518 b
• The compositions of the HR 8799 planets reflect accretion of both solids and metal-enriched gas
• Refractory and Volatile Species in the UV-to-IR Transmission Spectrum of Ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-178b with HST and JWST
• Extreme winds on the emerging dayside of an ultrahot Jupiter
• Retrieving day- and nightside atmospheric properties of the ultra-hot Jupiter TOI-2109b. Detection of Fe and CO emission lines and evidence for inefficient heat transport
• New perspectives on MASCARA-1b: A combined analysis of pre- and post-eclipse emission data using CRIRES+
• Hydride ion continuum hides absorption signatures in the NIRPS near-infrared transmission spectrum of the ultra-hot gas giant WASP-189b
• Low 4.5 μm Dayside Emission Disfavors a Dark Bare-Rock scenario for the Hot Super-Earth TOI-431 b
• Strong NUV Refractory Absorption and Dissociated Water in the Hubble Transmission Spectrum of the Ultra Hot Jupiter KELT-20 b
• Evidence of Titanate Clouds in the Day-side Atmosphere of the Ultra-Hot Jupiter WASP-121b
• Uniform Reanalysis of JWST MIRI 15μm Exoplanet Eclipse Observations using Frame-Normalized Principal Component Analysis
• Quantifying thermal water dissociation in the dayside photosphere of WASP-121 b using NIRPS
• Magnetic field strengths of hot giant exoplanets consistent with Solar System values
• Open Source High-Resolution Exoplanet Atmosphere Retrievals with POSEIDON
• First Results from WINERED: Detection of Emission Lines from Neutral Iron and a Combined Set of Trace Species on the Dayside of WASP-189 b
• Atmospheric asymmetries in WASP-121 b revealed by rotational transits detected with JWST
• Unraveling the Mystery of the Peculiar and Young Hot Jupiter CoRoT-2b. I. H${}_2$O and CO Detection from Dayside Observations with Gemini-S/IGRINS
• Assessing robustness and bias in 1D retrievals of 3D Global Circulation Models at high spectral resolution: a WASP-76 b simulation case study in emission
• Revisiting the atmosphere of HAT-P-70b with CARMENES high-resolution transmission spectroscopy
• GJ 3929 b as the First Complete Rocky Worlds DDT Data Set
• Precise Constraints on the Energy Budget of WASP-121 b from its JWST NIRISS/SOSS Phase Curve
• The breaking of cold traps and onset of titanium in ultra-hot Jupiter atmospheres: WASP-189b in context