The Metallicity and Carbon-to-oxygen Ratio of the Ultrahot Jupiter WASP-76b from Gemini-S/IGRINS

Abstract

Measurements of the carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratios of exoplanet atmospheres can reveal details about their formation and evolution. Recently, high-resolution cross-correlation analysis has emerged as a method of precisely constraining the C/O ratios of hot Jupiter atmospheres. We present two transits of the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-76b observed between 1.4 and 2.4 μ m with the high-resolution Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrometer on the Gemini-S telescope. We detected the presence of H _2 O, CO, and OH at signal-to-noise ratios of 6.93, 6.47, and 3.90, respectively. We performed two retrievals on this data set. A free retrieval for abundances of these three species retrieved a volatile metallicity of $\left[\tfrac{{\rm{C}}+{\rm{O}}}{{\rm{H}}}\right]=-{0.70}_{-0.93}^{+1.27}$ , consistent with the stellar value, and a supersolar carbon-to-oxygen ratio of C/O $\,=\,{0.80}_{-0.11}^{+0.07}$ . We also ran a chemically self-consistent grid retrieval, which agreed with the free retrieval within 1 σ but favored a slightly more substellar metallicity and solar C/O ratio ( $\left[\tfrac{{\rm{C}}+{\rm{O}}}{{\rm{H}}}\right]=-{0.74}_{-0.17}^{+0.23}$ and C/O $\,=\,{0.59}_{-0.14}^{+0.13}$ ). A variety of formation pathways may explain the composition of WASP-76b. Additionally, we found systemic ( V _sys ) and Keplerian ( K _p ) velocity offsets which were broadly consistent with expectations from 3D general circulation models of WASP-76b, with the exception of a redshifted V _sys for H _2 O. Future observations to measure the phase-dependent velocity offsets and limb differences at high resolution on WASP-76b will be necessary to understand the H _2 O velocity shift. Finally, we find that the population of exoplanets with precisely constrained C/O ratios generally trends toward super-solar C/O ratios. More results from high-resolution observations or JWST will serve to further elucidate any population-level trends.

Keywords

• Exoplanet atmospheres
• Exoplanet atmospheric composition
• Exoplanet atmospheric dynamics
• Observational astronomy