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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/31632
Title: | Five carbon- and nitrogen-bearing species in a hot giant planet's atmosphere | Authors: | GIACOBBE, Paolo BROGI, MATTEO Gandhi, Siddharth Cubillos, Patricio E. BONOMO, ALDO STEFANO SOZZETTI, Alessandro Fossati, Luca GUILLUY, GLORIA CARLEO, Ilaria RAINER, Monica HARUTYUNYAN, AVET BORSA, Francesco Pino, Lorenzo NASCIMBENI, VALERIO BENATTI, SERENA BIAZZO, Katia BIGNAMINI, ANDREA Chubb, Katy L. CLAUDI, Riccardo COSENTINO, Rosario COVINO, Elvira Damasso, Mario DESIDERA, Silvano Fiorenzano, Aldo F. M. Ghedina, Adriano LANZA, Antonino Francesco LETO, Giuseppe MAGGIO, Antonio Malavolta, Luca Maldonado, Jesus MICELA, Giuseppina MOLINARI, Emilio Carlo PAGANO, Isabella Pedani, Marco PIOTTO , GIAMPAOLO PORETTI, Ennio SCANDARIATO, GAETANO Yurchenko, Sergei N. FANTINEL, Daniela GALLI, ALBERTO Lodi, Marcello SANNA, Nicoletta TOZZI, Andrea |
Issue Date: | 2021 | Journal: | NATURE | Number: | 592 | Issue: | 7853 | First Page: | 205 | Abstract: | The atmospheres of gaseous giant exoplanets orbiting close to their parent stars (hot Jupiters) have been probed for nearly two decades<SUP>1,2</SUP>. They allow us to investigate the chemical and physical properties of planetary atmospheres under extreme irradiation conditions<SUP>3</SUP>. Previous observations of hot Jupiters as they transit in front of their host stars have revealed the frequent presence of water vapour<SUP>4</SUP> and carbon monoxide<SUP>5</SUP> in their atmospheres; this has been studied in terms of scaled solar composition<SUP>6</SUP> under the usual assumption of chemical equilibrium. Both molecules as well as hydrogen cyanide were found in the atmosphere of HD 209458b<SUP>5,7,8</SUP>, a well studied hot Jupiter (with equilibrium temperature around 1,500 kelvin), whereas ammonia was tentatively detected there<SUP>9</SUP> and subsequently refuted<SUP>10</SUP>. Here we report observations of HD 209458b that indicate the presence of water (H<SUB>2</SUB>O), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), methane (CH<SUB>4</SUB>), ammonia (NH<SUB>3</SUB>) and acetylene (C<SUB>2</SUB>H<SUB>2</SUB>), with statistical significance of 5.3 to 9.9 standard deviations per molecule. Atmospheric models in radiative and chemical equilibrium that account for the detected species indicate a carbon-rich chemistry with a carbon-to-oxygen ratio close to or greater than 1, higher than the solar value (0.55). According to existing models relating the atmospheric chemistry to planet formation and migration scenarios<SUP>3,11,12</SUP>, this would suggest that HD 209458b formed far from its present location and subsequently migrated inwards<SUP>11,13</SUP>. Other hot Jupiters may also show a richer chemistry than has been previously found, which would bring into question the frequently made assumption that they have solar-like and oxygen-rich compositions. | URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/31632 | URL: | https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85103995159 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03381-x |
ISSN: | 0028-0836 | DOI: | 10.1038/s41586-021-03381-x | Bibcode ADS: | 2021Natur.592..205G | Fulltext: | open |
Appears in Collections: | 1.01 Articoli in rivista |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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2104.03352.pdf | preprint | 4.04 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
s41586-021-03381-x-compressed.pdf | [Administrators only] | 2.4 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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