High-precision Atmospheric Characterization of a Y Dwarf with JWST NIRSpec G395H Spectroscopy: Isotopologue, C/O Ratio, Metallicity, and the Abundances of Six Molecular Species
Abstract
The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) marks a pivotal moment for precise atmospheric characterization of Y dwarfs, the coldest brown dwarf spectral type. In this study, we leverage moderate spectral resolution observations (R ∼ 2700) with the G395H grating of the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on board JWST to characterize the nearby (9.9 pc) Y dwarf WISEPA J182831.08+265037.8. With the NIRSpec G395H 2.88–5.12 μm spectrum, we measure the abundances of CO, CO2, CH4, H2S, NH3, and H2O, which are the major carbon-, nitrogen-, oxygen-, and sulfur-bearing species in the atmosphere. Based on the retrieved volume mixing ratios with the atmospheric retrieval framework CHIMERA, we report that the C/O ratio is 0.45 ± 0.01, close to the solar C/O value of 0.458, and the metallicity is +0.30 ± 0.02 dex. Comparison between the retrieval results and the forward modeling results suggests that the model bias for C/O and metallicity could be as high as 0.03 and 0.97 dex, respectively. We also report a lower limit of the 12CO/13CO ratio of >40, being consistent with the nominal solar value of 90. Our results highlight the potential for JWST to measure the C/O ratios down to percent-level precision and characterize isotopologues of cold planetary atmospheres similar to WISE 1828.
- Publication:
-
The Astronomical Journal
- Pub Date:
- May 2024
- DOI:
- 10.3847/1538-3881/ad3425
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2402.05900
- Bibcode:
- 2024AJ....167..237L
- Keywords:
-
- Brown dwarfs;
- Y dwarfs;
- Exoplanet atmospheres;
- Planetary atmospheres;
- 185;
- 1827;
- 487;
- 1244;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 18 pages + references, including 11 figures, accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal