File:Exoplanet WASP-17 b (MIRI Transmission Spectrum) (2023-140).png
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[edit]DescriptionExoplanet WASP-17 b (MIRI Transmission Spectrum) (2023-140).png |
English: A transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-17 b captured by MIRI (Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument) on March 12-13, 2023, reveals the first evidence for quartz (crystalline silica, SiO2) in the clouds of an exoplanet.
The spectrum was made by measuring the change in brightness of 28 wavelength-bands of mid-infrared light as the planet transited its star. Webb observed the WASP-17 system using MIRI’s low-resolution spectrograph for nearly 10 hours, collecting more than 1,275 measurements before, during, and after the transit. For each wavelength, the amount of light blocked by the planet’s atmosphere (white circles) was calculated by subtracting the amount that made it through the atmosphere from the amount originally emitted by the star. The solid purple line is a best-fit model to the Webb (MIRI), Hubble, and Spitzer data. (The Hubble and Spitzer data cover wavelengths from 0.34 to 4.5 microns and are not shown on the graph.) The spectrum shows a clear feature around 8.6 microns, which astronomers think is caused by silica particles absorbing some of the starlight passing through the atmosphere. The dashed yellow line shows what that part of the transmission spectrum would look like if the clouds in WASP-17 b’s atmosphere did not contain SiO2. This marks the first time that SiO2 has been identified in an exoplanet, and the first time any specific cloud species has been identified in a transiting exoplanet. NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) David Grant (University of Bristol), Hannah R. Wakeford (University of Bristol), Nikole Lewis (Cornell University) |
Date | 16 October 2023 (upload date) |
Source | Exoplanet WASP-17 b (MIRI Transmission Spectrum) |
Author | Illustration NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) Science David Grant (University of Bristol), Hannah R. Wakeford (University of Bristol), Nikole Lewis (Cornell University) |
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[edit]Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA, ESA and CSA. NASA Webb material is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA/CSA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if source material from other organizations is in use. The material was created for NASA by Space Telescope Science Institute under Contract NAS5-03127. Copyright statement at webbtelescope.org. For material created by the European Space Agency on the esawebb.org site, use the {{ESA-Webb}} tag. |
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Horizontal resolution | 28.34 dpc |
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Vertical resolution | 28.34 dpc |