Inhomogeneous terminators on the exoplanet WASP-39 b.

ABSTRACT: Transmission spectroscopy has been a workhorse technique used over the past two decades to constrain the physical and chemical properties of exoplanet atmospheres^1-5. One of its classical key assumptions is that the portion of the atmosphere it probes-the terminator region-is homogeneous. Several works from the past decade, however, have put this into question for highly irradiated, hot (T_eq ≳ 1,000 K) gas giant exoplanets, both empirically^6-10 and through three-dimensional modelling^11-17. While models have predicted clear differences between the evening (day-to-night) and morning (night-to-day) terminators, direct morning and evening transmission spectra in a wide wavelength range have not been reported for an exoplanet so far. Under the assumpt

SUBMITTER: Espinoza N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11357994 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature