Retrieval of the dayside atmosphere of WASP-43b with CRIRES+

TL;DR

This study presents the first high-resolution K band spectra of WASP-43b, detecting CO and H2O, and constrains its atmospheric composition, temperature profile, and dynamics, including a super-solar C/O ratio and equatorial super-rotation.

Contribution

First high-resolution spectra of WASP-43b in the K band, enabling direct detection of CO and H2O, and detailed atmospheric retrieval including C/O ratio and wind dynamics.

Findings

Detected CO and evidence for H2O in WASP-43b's atmosphere.

Retrieved a super-solar C/O ratio of 0.78.

Found no evidence for clouds and identified super-rotation with ~5 km/s wind.

Abstract

Accurately estimating the C/O ratio of hot Jupiter atmospheres is a promising pathway towards understanding planet formation and migration, as well as the formation of clouds and the overall atmospheric composition. The atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-43b has been extensively analysed using low-resolution observations with HST and Spitzer, but these previous observations did not cover the K band, which hosts prominent spectral features of major carbon-bearing species such as CO and CH$_{4}$. As a result, the ability to establish precise constraints on the C/O ratio was limited. Moreover, the planet has not been studied at high spectral resolution, which can provide insights into the atmospheric dynamics. In this study, we present the first high-resolution dayside spectra of WASP-43b with the new CRIRES$^+$ spectrograph. By observing the planet in the K band, we successfully detected the presence of CO and provide evidence for the existence of H$_2$O using the cross-correlation method. This discovery represents the first direct detection of CO in the atmosphere of WASP-43b. Furthermore, we retrieved the temperature-pressure profile, abundances of CO and H$_2$O, and a super-solar C/O ratio of 0.78 by applying a Bayesian retrieval framework to the data. Our findings also shed light on the atmospheric characteristics of WASP-43b. We found no evidence for a cloud deck on the dayside, and recovered a line broadening indicative of an equatorial super-rotation corresponding to a jet with a wind speed of $\sim$ 5 km s$^{-1}$, matching the results of previous forward models and low-resolution atmospheric retrievals for this planet.