The JWST weather report from the nearest brown dwarfs III: Heterogeneous clouds and Thermochemical instabilities as possible drivers of WISE 1049AB's spectroscopic variability

Abstract

We present a new analysis of the spectroscopic variability of WISE~J104915.57$-$531906.1AB (WISE~1049AB, L7.5+T0.5), observed using the NIRSpec instrument onboard the James Webb Space Telescope (GO 2965 - PI: Biller). We explored the variability of the dominant molecular bands present in their 0.6--5.3~$\hat{I}¼$m spectra (H${}_2$O, CH${}_4$, CO), finding that the B component exhibits a higher maximum deviation than the A component in all the wavelength ranges tested. The light curves reveal wavelength-(atmospheric depth) and possibly chemistry-dependent variability. In particular, for the A component, the variability in the light curves at the wavelengths traced by the CH${}_4$ and CO molecular absorption features is higher than that of H${}_2$O, even when both trace similar pressure levels. We concluded that clouds alone are unlikely to explain the increased variability of CO and CH${}_4$ with respect to H${}_2$O, suggesting that an additional physical mechanism is needed to explain the observed variability. This mechanism is probably due to thermochemical instabilities. Finally, we provide a visual representation of the 3D atmospheric map reconstructed for both components using the molecular band contributions at different pressure levels and the fit of planetary-scale waves.

Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ). 25 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables