Water depletion and 15NH3 in the atmosphere of the coldest brown dwarf observed with JWST/MIRI

TL;DR

This study uses JWST/MIRI observations to analyze the atmosphere of the coldest brown dwarf, WISE0855, revealing water depletion, detecting ammonia isotopologues, and constraining atmospheric parameters with advanced retrieval methods.

Contribution

First detailed atmospheric characterization of WISE0855 using JWST data, including detection of 15NH3 and insights into water condensation in ultra-cool brown dwarfs.

Findings

Detected 15NH3 isotopologue with a ratio of 332+63-43.

Measured bolometric luminosity as log(L/L$_{igodot}$) = -7.291.

Observed water depletion and absence of water ice clouds.

Abstract

With a temperature of $\sim 285$ K WISE0855 is the coldest brown dwarf observed so far. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) we obtained observations that allow us to characterize WISE0855s atmosphere focusing on vertical variation in the water steam abundance, measuring trace gas abundances and receiving bulk parameters for this cold object. We observed the ultra cool dwarf WISE0855 using the Mid-Infrared Instrument Medium Resolution Spectrometer (MIRI/MRS) onboard JWST at a spectral resolution of up to 3750. We combined the observation with published data from the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) G395M and PRISM modes yielding a spectrum ranging from 0.8 to 22 um. We apply atmospheric retrievals using petitRADTRANS to measure atmospheric abundances, the pressure-temperature structure, radius and gravity of the brown dwarf. We also employ publicly available clear and cloudy self-consistent grid models to estimate bulk properties of the atmosphere such as the effective temperature, radius, gravity and metallicity. Atmospheric retrievals constrain a variable water abundance profile in the atmosphere, as predicted by equilibrium chemistry. We detect the 15NH3 isotopologue and infer a ratio of mass fraction of 14NH3/15NH3 = 332+63-43 for the clear retrieval. We measure the bolometric luminosity by integrating the presented spectrum and obtain a value of log(L/L$_{\odot}$) = -7.291+/-0.008. The detected water depletion indicates that water condenses out in the upper atmosphere due to the very low effective temperature of WISE0855. The height in the atmosphere where this occurs is covered by the MIRI/MRS data, and thus demonstrates the potential of MIRI to characterize cold gas giants atmospheres. Comparing the data to retrievals and self-consistent grid models, we do not detect signs for water ice clouds, although their spectral features have been predicted in previous studies.