JWST COMPASS: A NIRSpec G395H Transmission Spectrum of Radius Valley-Dweller TOI-260 b

TL;DR

This study presents JWST/NIRSpec G395H transmission spectra of the exoplanet TOI-260 b, revealing a mostly featureless atmosphere with a potential spectral feature, and constrains its atmospheric metallicity to over 200 times solar.

Contribution

First JWST/NIRSpec G395H transmission spectrum of TOI-260 b, providing insights into its atmospheric composition and potential features, and demonstrating the precision achievable with JWST for small exoplanets.

Findings

Transmission spectrum is mostly featureless.

Possible spectral feature around 3.17 μm, likely due to systematics.

Atmospheric metallicity constrained to >200× solar.

Abstract

We present a JWST/NIRSpec G395H transmission spectrum of TOI-260 b, a $T_\mathrm{eq}\sim 490$ K, $R_\mathrm{p} = 1.76\,R_\oplus$ planet. The transmission spectrum is derived by combining two transit observations, collected as part of the JWST COMPASS program. We achieved the same median transit depth precision of 37 ppm in both visits, and a median precision of 26 ppm when combining the spectroscopic light curves from the two visits. Implementing a 30-pixel-wide ($R\sim 200$) spectroscopic binning scheme, we find that the transmission spectrum is mostly featureless, with a possible feature around 3.17 $\mu$m. We assess the significance of any features in the transmission spectrum with a suite of non-parametric models, which confirm the presence of a potential feature in the NRS1 bandpass and an offset between the NRS1 and NRS2 detectors. To investigate the atmospheric composition of TOI-260 b, we run a series of PLATON retrievals. We do not detect any clear molecular signatures, but the combined data from the two visits are sufficient to constrain the atmospheric metallicity to greater than $200\times$ solar, assuming no opaque deck $\lesssim2.5$ mbar. We also investigate causes of the potential feature near 3.17 $\mu$m; while we find some compatible gaseous species and cannot fully discard an astrophysical origin, we suspect a systematics origin due to the variance in strength and position of the feature. Overall, this look at TOI-260 b adds to the small sample of radius-valley planets, which already seem to show a diversity in their atmospheric compositions. Determining the true nature of these enigmatic planets will require a larger telescope time investment.