Evidence for Nightside Water Emission Found in Transit of Ultrahot Jupiter WASP-33b

TL;DR

This study detects water emission on the nightside of the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-33b, revealing an inverted thermal structure and highlighting the importance of considering nightside emission in high-resolution transmission spectroscopy.

Contribution

It introduces a general equation for high-resolution transmission spectra that includes nightside thermal emission, enabling better inference of planetary thermal structures.

Findings

Evidence of water emission indicating an inverted nightside temperature structure

Suggests stronger heat transport through atmospheric circulation than previously thought

Highlights the potential influence of limb and dayside atmospheres during transit

Abstract

To date, the dayside thermal structure of ultrahot Jupiters (UHJs) is generally considered to be inverted, but their nightside thermal structure has been less explored. Here we explore the impact of nightside thermal emission on high-resolution infrared transmission spectroscopy, which should not be neglected, especially for UHJs. We present a general equation for the high-resolution transmission spectrum that includes planetary nightside thermal emission. This provides a new way to infer the thermal structure of the planetary nightside with high-resolution transmission spectroscopy. Using the cross-correlation technique, we find evidence for the presence of an H$_2$O emission signature on the UHJ WASP-33b during the transit, indicating an inverted temperature structure on its nightside. Such a result suggests a stronger heat transport through the circulation than currently expected. An alternative explanation is that the rotating visible hemisphere during transit leads to the potential contribution of the limb and dayside atmospheres to the detected emission signature. In the future, the combination of high-resolution full-phase curve spectroscopic observations and general circulation models will hopefully solve this puzzle and provide a complete picture of the three-dimensional nature of the chemistry, circulation, and thermal structure of UHJs.