A Measurement of the Water Abundance in the Atmosphere of the Hot Jupiter WASP-43b with High-resolution Cross-correlation Spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution spectroscopy to measure water abundance and constrain the C/O ratio in the atmosphere of hot Jupiter WASP-43b, providing insights into its composition and formation history.

Contribution

First high-resolution spectral analysis of WASP-43b across 1.45-2.45 μm detecting water and constraining the C/O ratio, enhancing understanding of its atmospheric composition.

Findings

Detected water with SNR of 3.51

No detection of CH4, CO, or CO2

C/O ratio constrained to less than 0.95

Abstract

Measuring the abundances of carbon- and oxygen-bearing molecules has been a primary focus in studying the atmospheres of hot Jupiters, as doing so can help constrain the carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio. The C/O ratio can help reveal the evolution and formation pathways of hot Jupiters and provide a strong understanding of the atmospheric composition. In the last decade, high-resolution spectral analyses have become increasingly useful in measuring precise abundances of several carbon- and oxygen-bearing molecules. This allows for a more precise constraint of the C/O ratio. We present four transits of the hot Jupiter WASP-43b observed between 1.45 $-$ 2.45 $\mu$m with the high-resolution Immersion GRating InfraRed Spectrometer (IGRINS) on the Gemini-S telescope. We detected H$_2$O at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 3.51. We tested for the presence of CH$_4$, CO, and CO$_2$, but we did not detect these carbon-bearing species. We ran a retrieval for all four molecules and obtained a water abundance of $\log_{10}(\text{H}_2\text{O}) = -2.24^{+0.57}_{-0.48}$. We obtained an upper limit on the C/O ratio of C/O $<$ 0.95. These findings are consistent with previous observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.