A tentative detection of He I in the atmosphere of GJ 1214b

TL;DR

This study reports the first tentative detection of helium in the atmosphere of GJ 1214b using high-resolution transmission spectroscopy, suggesting possible atmospheric escape and providing new insights into its atmospheric composition.

Contribution

First potential detection of He I in GJ 1214b's atmosphere using high-resolution spectroscopy, resolving previous non-detections and indicating atmospheric escape.

Findings

Detected He I absorption at 4.6 sigma significance.

Estimated mass-loss rate of (1.5--18)×10^10 g/s.

GJ 1214b likely undergoing hydrodynamic atmospheric escape.

Abstract

The $\ion{He}{I}$ 10833\,$\AA$ triplet is a powerful tool for characterising the upper atmosphere of exoplanets and tracing possible mass loss. Here, we analysed one transit of GJ\,1214\,b observed with the CARMENES high-resolution spectrograph to study its atmosphere via transmission spectroscopy around the $\ion{He}{I}$ triplet. Although previous studies using lower resolution instruments have reported non-detections of $\ion{He}{I}$ in the atmosphere of GJ\,1214\,b, we report here the first potential detection. We reconcile the conflicting results arguing that previous transit observations did not present good opportunities for the detection of $\ion{He}{I}$, due to telluric H$_2$O absorption and OH emission contamination.We simulated those earlier observations, and show evidence that the planetary signal was contaminated. From our single non-telluric-contaminated transit, we determined an excess absorption of 2.10$^{+0.45}_{-0.50}$\,\% (4.6\,$\sigma$) with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 1.30$^{+0.30}_{-0.25}$\,\AA. The detection of \ion{He}{I} is statistically significant at the 4.6\,$\sigma$ level, but repeatability of the detection could not be confirmed due to the availability of only one transit. By applying a hydrodynamical model and assuming an H/He composition of 98/2, we found that GJ\,1214\,b would undergo hydrodynamic escape in the photon-limited regime, losing its primary atmosphere with a mass-loss rate of (1.5--18)\,$\times$\,10$^{10}$\,g\,s$^{-1}$ and an outflow temperature in the range of 2900--4400\,K. Our $\ion{He}{I}$ excess absorption is the first tentative detection of a chemical species in the atmosphere of this benchmark sub-Neptune planet.