Extreme winds on the emerging dayside of an ultrahot Jupiter

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution spectroscopy to directly measure extreme atmospheric winds on the dayside of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-9 b, revealing supersonic wind speeds and providing insights into its atmospheric dynamics and chemistry.

Contribution

First direct measurement of supersonic atmospheric winds on an ultra-hot Jupiter using high-resolution phase curve spectra and a novel retrieval framework.

Findings

Detected wind speeds up to 11.7 km/s, exceeding rotation velocity.

Confirmed weak atmospheric drag, indicating efficient heat recirculation.

Retrieved atmospheric composition and temperature structure.

Abstract

High-resolution spectroscopy provides a unique opportunity to directly probe atmospheric dynamics by resolving Doppler shifts of planetary signal as a function of orbital phases. Using the optical spectrometer Keck Planet Finder (KPF), we carry out a pilot study on high-resolution phase curve spectra of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-9 b. We spectrally and temporally resolve its dayside emission from post-transit to pre-eclipse (orbital phase phi = 0.1 - 0.45). The signal strength and width increase with orbital phases as the dayside rotates into view. The net Doppler shift varies progressively from -13.4 +/- 0.6 to -0.4 +/- 1.0 km/s, the extent of which exceeds its rotation velocity of 6.4 +/- 0.1 km/s, providing unambiguous evidence of atmospheric winds. We devise a retrieval framework to fit the full time-series spectra, accounting for the variation of line profiles due to the rotation and winds. We retrieve a supersonic day-to-night wind speed up to 11.7 +/- 0.6 km/s on the emerging dayside, representing the most extreme atmospheric winds in hot Jupiters to date. Comparison to 3D circulation models reveals a weak atmospheric drag, consistent with relatively efficient heat recirculation as also supported by space-based phase curve measurements. Additionally, we retrieve the dayside chemistry (including Fe i, Fe ii, Ti i, Ti ii, Ca i, Ca ii, Mg i, and Si i) and temperature structure, and place constraints on the nightside thermal profile. Our high-resolution phase curve spectra and the measured supersonic winds provide excellent benchmarks for extreme physics in circulation models, demonstrating the power of this technique in understanding climates of hot Jupiters.