Dr Jake Taylor (he/him): Publications

Photochemically produced SO2 in the atmosphere of WASP-39b

Nature Nature Research 617:7961 (2023) 483-487

Authors:

Shang-Min Tsai, Elspeth KH Lee, Diana Powell, Peter Gao, Xi Zhang, Julianne Moses, Eric Hébrard, Olivia Venot, Vivien Parmentier, Sean Jordan, Renyu Hu, Munazza K Alam, Lili Alderson, Natalie M Batalha, Jacob L Bean, Björn Benneke, Carver J Bierson, Ryan P Brady, Ludmila Carone, Aarynn L Carter, Katy L Chubb, Julie Inglis, Jérémy Leconte, Michael Line, Mercedes López-Morales

Abstract:

Photochemistry is a fundamental process of planetary atmospheres that regulates the atmospheric composition and stability1. However, no unambiguous photochemical products have been detected in exoplanet atmospheres so far. Recent observations from the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program2,3 found a spectral absorption feature at 4.05 μm arising from sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere of WASP-39b. WASP-39b is a 1.27-Jupiter-radii, Saturn-mass (0.28 MJ) gas giant exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star with an equilibrium temperature of around 1,100 K (ref. 4). The most plausible way of generating SO2 in such an atmosphere is through photochemical processes5,6. Here we show that the SO2 distribution computed by a suite of photochemical models robustly explains the 4.05-μm spectral feature identified by JWST transmission observations7 with NIRSpec PRISM (2.7σ)8 and G395H (4.5σ)9. SO2 is produced by successive oxidation of sulfur radicals freed when hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is destroyed. The sensitivity of the SO2 feature to the enrichment of the atmosphere by heavy elements (metallicity) suggests that it can be used as a tracer of atmospheric properties, with WASP-39b exhibiting an inferred metallicity of about 10× solar. We further point out that SO2 also shows observable features at ultraviolet and thermal infrared wavelengths not available from the existing observations

Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRSpec PRISM

Nature Springer Nature 614:7949 (2023) 659-663

Authors:

Z Rustamkulov, DK Sing, S Mukherjee, EM May, J Kirk, E Schlawin, MR Line, C Piaulet, AL Carter, NE Batalha, JM Goyal, M López-Morales, JD Lothringer, RJ MacDonald, SE Moran, KB Stevenson, HR Wakeford, N Espinoza, JL Bean, NM Batalha, B Benneke, ZK Berta-Thompson, IJM Crossfield, P Gao, L Kreidberg, DK Powell, PE Cubillos, NP Gibson, J Leconte, K Molaverdikhani, NK Nikolov, V Parmentier, P Roy, J Taylor, JD Turner, PJ Wheatley, K Aggarwal, E Ahrer, MK Alam, L Alderson, NH Allen, A Banerjee, S Barat, D Barrado, JK Barstow, TJ Bell, J Blecic, J Brande, S Casewell, Q Changeat, KL Chubb, N Crouzet, T Daylan, L Decin, J Désert, T Mikal-Evans, AD Feinstein, L Flagg, JJ Fortney, J Harrington, K Heng, Y Hong, R Hu, N Iro, T Kataria, EM-R Kempton, J Krick, M Lendl, J Lillo-Box, A Louca, J Lustig-Yaeger, L Mancini, M Mansfield, NJ Mayne, Y Miguel, G Morello, K Ohno, E Palle, DJM Petit dit de la Roche, BV Rackham, M Radica, L Ramos-Rosado, S Redfield, LK Rogers, EL Shkolnik, J Southworth, J Teske, P Tremblin, GS Tucker, O Venot, WC Waalkes, L Welbanks, X Zhang, S Zieba

Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRCam

Nature Springer Nature 614:7949 (2023) 653-658

Authors:

Eva-Maria Ahrer, Kevin B Stevenson, Megan Mansfield, Sarah E Moran, Jonathan Brande, Giuseppe Morello, Catriona A Murray, Nikolay K Nikolov, Dominique JM Petit dit de la Roche, Everett Schlawin, Peter J Wheatley, Sebastian Zieba, Natasha E Batalha, Mario Damiano, Jayesh M Goyal, Monika Lendl, Joshua D Lothringer, Sagnick Mukherjee, Kazumasa Ohno, Natalie M Batalha, Matthew P Battley, Jacob L Bean, Thomas G Beatty, Björn Benneke, Zachory K Berta-Thompson, Aarynn L Carter, Patricio E Cubillos, Tansu Daylan, Néstor Espinoza, Peter Gao, Neale P Gibson, Samuel Gill, Joseph Harrington, Renyu Hu, Laura Kreidberg, Nikole K Lewis, Michael R Line, Mercedes López-Morales, Vivien Parmentier, Diana K Powell, David K Sing, Shang-Min Tsai, Hannah R Wakeford, Luis Welbanks, Munazza K Alam, Lili Alderson, Natalie H Allen, David R Anderson, Joanna K Barstow, Daniel Bayliss, Taylor J Bell, Jasmina Blecic, Edward M Bryant, Matthew R Burleigh, Ludmila Carone, SL Casewell, Quentin Changeat, Katy L Chubb, Ian JM Crossfield, Nicolas Crouzet, Leen Decin, Jean-Michel Désert, Adina D Feinstein, Laura Flagg, Jonathan J Fortney, John E Gizis, Kevin Heng, Nicolas Iro, Eliza M-R Kempton, Sarah Kendrew, James Kirk, Heather A Knutson, Thaddeus D Komacek, Pierre-Olivier Lagage, Jérémy Leconte, Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, Ryan J MacDonald, Luigi Mancini, EM May, NJ Mayne, Yamila Miguel, Thomas Mikal-Evans, Karan Molaverdikhani, Enric Palle, Caroline Piaulet, Benjamin V Rackham, Seth Redfield, Laura K Rogers, Pierre-Alexis Roy, Zafar Rustamkulov, Evgenya L Shkolnik, Kristin S Sotzen, Jake Taylor, P Tremblin, Gregory S Tucker, Jake D Turner, Miguel de Val-Borro, Olivia Venot, Xi Zhang

Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRISS

Nature Springer Nature 614:7949 (2023) 670-675

Authors:

Adina D Feinstein, Michael Radica, Luis Welbanks, Catriona Anne Murray, Kazumasa Ohno, Louis-Philippe Coulombe, Néstor Espinoza, Jacob L Bean, Johanna K Teske, Björn Benneke, Michael R Line, Zafar Rustamkulov, Arianna Saba, Angelos Tsiaras, Joanna K Barstow, Jonathan J Fortney, Peter Gao, Heather A Knutson, Ryan J MacDonald, Thomas Mikal-Evans, Benjamin V Rackham, Jake Taylor, Vivien Parmentier, Natalie M Batalha, Zachory K Berta-Thompson, Aarynn L Carter, Quentin Changeat, Leonardo A dos Santos, Neale P Gibson, Jayesh M Goyal, Laura Kreidberg, Mercedes López-Morales, Joshua D Lothringer, Yamila Miguel, Karan Molaverdikhani, Sarah E Moran, Giuseppe Morello, Sagnick Mukherjee, David K Sing, Kevin B Stevenson, Hannah R Wakeford, Eva-Maria Ahrer, Munazza K Alam, Lili Alderson, Natalie H Allen, Natasha E Batalha, Taylor J Bell, Jasmina Blecic, Jonathan Brande, Claudio Caceres, SL Casewell, Katy L Chubb, Ian JM Crossfield, Nicolas Crouzet, Patricio E Cubillos, Leen Decin, Jean-Michel Désert, Joseph Harrington, Kevin Heng, Thomas Henning, Nicolas Iro, Eliza M-R Kempton, Sarah Kendrew, James Kirk, Jessica Krick, Pierre-Olivier Lagage, Monika Lendl, Luigi Mancini, Megan Mansfield, EM May, NJ Mayne, Nikolay K Nikolov, Enric Palle, Dominique JM Petit dit de la Roche, Caroline Piaulet, Diana Powell, Seth Redfield, Laura K Rogers, Michael T Roman, Pierre-Alexis Roy, Matthew C Nixon, Everett Schlawin, Xianyu Tan, P Tremblin, Jake D Turner, Olivia Venot, William C Waalkes, Peter J Wheatley, Xi Zhang

Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRSpec G395H

Nature Nature Research 614:7949 (2023) 664-669

Authors:

Lili Alderson, Hannah R Wakeford, Munazza K Alam, Natasha E Batalha, Joshua D Lothringer, Jea Adams Redai, Saugata Barat, Jonathan Brande, Mario Damiano, Tansu Daylan, Néstor Espinoza, Laura Flagg, Jayesh M Goyal, David Grant, Renyu Hu, Julie Inglis, Elspeth KH Lee, Thomas Mikal-Evans, Lakeisha Ramos-Rosado, Pierre-Alexis Roy, Nicole L Wallack, Natalie M Batalha, Jacob L Bean, Björn Benneke, Zachory K Berta-Thompson, Jake Taylor

Abstract:

Measuring the abundances of carbon and oxygen in exoplanet atmospheres is considered a crucial avenue for unlocking the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems. Access to an exoplanet's chemical inventory requires high-precision observations, often inferred from individual molecular detections with low-resolution space-based and high-resolution ground-based facilities. Here we report the medium-resolution (R$\sim$600) transmission spectrum of an exoplanet atmosphere between 3-5 $\mu$m covering multiple absorption features for the Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b, obtained with JWST NIRSpec G395H. Our observations achieve 1.46x photon precision, providing an average transit depth uncertainty of 221 ppm per spectroscopic bin, and present minimal impacts from systematic effects. We detect significant absorption from CO$_2$ (28.5$\sigma$) and H$_2$O (21.5$\sigma$), and identify SO$_2$ as the source of absorption at 4.1 $\mu$m (4.8$\sigma$). Best-fit atmospheric models range between 3 and 10x solar metallicity, with sub-solar to solar C/O ratios. These results, including the detection of SO$_2$, underscore the importance of characterising the chemistry in exoplanet atmospheres, and showcase NIRSpec G395H as an excellent mode for time series observations over this critical wavelength range.Comment: 44 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables. Resubmitted after revision to Natur

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