Jupiter-like uniform metal enrichment in a system of multiple giant exoplanets

Abstract

The accretion of icy and rocky solids during the formation of a gas giant planet is poorly constrained and challenging to model. Refractory species, like sulfur, are only present in solids in the protoplanetary disk where planets form. Measuring their abundance in planetary atmospheres is one of the most direct ways of constraining the extent and mechanism of solid accretion. Using the unprecedented sensitivity of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we measure a detailed chemical make-up of three massive gas giants orbiting the star HR~8799 including direct detections of H${}_2$O, CO, CH${}_4$, CO${}_2$, H${}_2$S, ${}^{13}$CO, and C${}^{18}$O. We find these planets are uniformly and highly enriched in heavy elements compared to the star irrespective of their volatile (carbon and oxygen) or refractory (sulfur) nature, which strongly suggests efficient accretion of solids during their formation. This composition closely resembles that of Jupiter and Saturn and demonstrates that this enrichment also occurs in systems of multiple gas giant planets orbiting stars beyond the Solar System. This discovery hints at a shared origin for the heavy element enrichment of giant planets across a wider range of planet masses and orbital separations than previously anticipated.

arXiv commentSubmitted to Nature Astronomy

References in corpus (62)

• The chemical composition of the Sun
• Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
• Spectral Energy Distributions of T Tauri Stars With Passive Circumstellar Disks
• X-ray spectral modelling of the AGN obscuring region in the CDFS: Bayesian model selection and catalogue
• The effects of snowlines on C/O in planetary atmospheres
• Importance Nested Sampling and the MultiNest Algorithm
• Towards a Deterministic Model of Planetary Formation I: a Desert in the Mass and Semi Major Axis Distributions of Extra Solar Planets
• Precipitating Condensation Clouds in Substellar Atmospheres
• The Evolution of L and T Dwarfs in Color-Magnitude Diagrams
• ExoMol molecular line lists XXX: a complete high-accuracy line list for water
• petitRADTRANS: a Python radiative transfer package for exoplanet characterization and retrieval
• The Mass-Metallicity Relation for Giant Planets
• Detection of Carbon Monoxide and Water Absorption Lines in an Exoplanet Atmosphere
• The imprint of exoplanet formation history on observable present-day spectra of hot Jupiters
• An Ice Age JWST inventory of dense molecular cloud ices
• The VLA/ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity (VANDAM) Survey of Orion Protostars. A Statistical Characterization of Class 0 and I Protostellar Disks
• ExoMol line lists III: An improved hot rotation-vibration line list for HCN and HNC
• A new set of atmosphere and evolution models for cool T-Y brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets
• Initial Conditions of Planet Formation: Lifetimes of Primordial Disks
• Photochemically-produced SO${}_2$ in the atmosphere of WASP-39b
• ExoMol molecular line lists XXXV: a rotation-vibration line list for hot ammonia
• ExoMol molecular line lists - XVI: The rotation-vibration spectrum of hot H${}_2$S
• An accurate, extensive, and practical line list of methane for the HITEMP database
• Methane, Carbon Monoxide, and Ammonia in Brown Dwarfs and Self-Luminous Giant Planets
• Retrieving scattering clouds and disequilibrium chemistry in the atmosphere of HR 8799e
• The Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on the James Webb Space Telescope III. Integral-field spectroscopy
• Tracing the formation history of giant planets in protoplanetary disks with Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Sulphur
• Simultaneous Detection of Water, Methane and Carbon Monoxide in the Atmosphere of Exoplanet HR8799b
• First light of the VLT planet finder SPHERE. III. New spectrophotometry and astrometry of the HR8799 exoplanetary system
• Quenching of Carbon Monoxide and Methane in the Atmospheres of Cool Brown Dwarfs and Hot Jupiters
• Molecular abundances and C/O ratios in chemically evolving planet-forming disk midplanes
• A 3D Drizzle Algorithm for JWST and Practical Application to the MIRI Medium Resolution Spectrometer
• New study of the line profiles of sodium perturbed by H2
• CO destruction in protoplanetary disk midplanes: inside versus outside the CO snow surface
• Abundant refractory sulfur in protoplanetary disks
• Fingerprints of giant planets in the photospheres of Herbig stars
• The 13O-rich atmosphere of a young accreting super-Jupiter
• Improving and Assessing Planet Sensitivity of the GPI Exoplanet Survey with a Forward Model Matched Filter
• How drifting and evaporating pebbles shape giant planets II: Volatiles and refractories in atmospheres
• Radial Velocity Measurements of HR 8799 b and c with Medium Resolution Spectroscopy
• Breaking Degeneracies in Formation Histories by Measuring Refractory Content in Gas Giants
• The Heavy Element Composition of Disk Instability Planets Can Range From Sub- to Super-Nebular
• A Clear View of a Cloudy Brown Dwarf Companion from High-Resolution Spectroscopy
• Metallicity of the Massive Protoplanets Around HR 8799 If Formed by Gravitational Instability
• Probing the Extent of Vertical Mixing in Brown Dwarf Atmospheres with Disequilibrium Chemistry
• Deep exploration of the planets HR 8799 b, c, and d with moderate resolution spectroscopy
• Assessing the C/O Ratio Formation Diagnostic: A Potential Trend with Companion Mass
• Four-of-a-kind? Comprehensive atmospheric characterisation of the HR 8799 planets with VLTI/GRAVITY
• A Balanced Budget View on Forming Giant Planets by Pebble Accretion
• Quartz Clouds in the Dayside Atmosphere of the Quintessential Hot Jupiter HD 189733 b
• A detailed characterization of HR 8799's debris disk with ALMA in Band 7
• H2S and SO2 detectability in Hot Jupiters: Sulfur species as indicator of metallicity and C/O ratio
• Orbital and dynamical analysis of the system around HR 8799. New astrometric epochs from VLT/SPHERE and LBT/LUCI
• Considerations for Atmospheric Retrieval of High-Precision Brown Dwarf Spectra
• The ESO SupJup Survey III: Confirmation of 13CO in YSES 1 b and Atmospheric Detection of YSES 1 c with CRIRES+
• Revisiting the atmosphere of the exoplanet 51 Eridani b with VLT/SPHERE
• Kepler-167e as a Probe of the Formation Histories of Cold Giants with Inner Super-Earths
• Lambda Boo Abundance Patterns: Accretion from Orbiting Sources
• JWST-TST High Contrast: Living on the Wedge, or, NIRCam Bar Coronagraphy Reveals CO${}_2$ in the HR 8799 and 51 Eri Exoplanets' Atmospheres
• Establishing Dust Rings and Forming Planets Within Them
• Three-dimensional transport of solids in a protoplanetary disk containing a growing giant planet
• A High-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey of Directly Imaged Companion Hosts: I. Determination of diagnostic stellar abundances for planet formation and composition

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The compositions of the HR 8799 planets reflect accretion of both solids and metal-enriched gas
• Direct Imaging Discovery of Giant Exoplanet $\beta$ Pictoris d: A Decade-Long Game of Hide-and-Seek
• JWST-TST High Contrast: First Direct Spectroscopy of GJ 504 b reveals Clouds and Possible Metal Enrichment
• Panchromatic View of the Frigid Jovian Exoplanet COCONUTS-2 b