First Detection of Hydroxyl Radical Emission from an Exoplanet Atmosphere: High-dispersion Characterization of WASP-33b using Subaru/IRD
Abstract
We report the first detection of a hydroxyl radical (OH) emission signature in the planetary atmosphere outside the solar system, in this case, in the day-side of WASP-33b. We analyze high-resolution near-infrared emission spectra of WASP-33b taken using the InfraRed Doppler spectrograph on the 8.2-m Subaru telescope. The telluric and stellar lines are removed using a de-trending algorithm, SysRem. The residuals are then cross-correlated with OH and H2O planetary spectrum templates produced using several different line-lists. We check and confirm the accuracy of OH line-lists by cross-correlating with the spectrum of GJ 436. As a result, we detect the emission signature of OH at Kp of 230.9+6.9-7.4 km s-1 and vsys of -0.3+5.3-5.6 km s-1 with S/N of 5.4 and significance of 5.5σ. Additionally, we marginally detect H2O emission in the H-band with S/N of 4.0 and significance of 5.2σ using the POKAZATEL line-list. However, no significant signal is detected using the HITEMP 2010, which might be due to differences in line positions and strengths, as well as the incompleteness of the line-lists. Nonetheless, this marginal detection is consistent with the prediction that H2O is mostly thermally dissociated in the upper atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiters. Therefore, along with CO, OH is expected to be one of the most abundant O-bearing molecules in the day-side atmosphere of ultra-hot Jupiters and should be considered when studying their atmosphere.