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Evidence for a volcanic atmosphere on the sub-Earth L98-59b by Bello-Arufe, Aaron; Damiano, Mario; Bennett, Katherine A.; Hu, Renyu; Welbanks, Luis; MacDonald, Ryan J.; Seligman, Darryl Z.; Sing, David K.; Tokadjian, Armen; Oza, Apurva; Yang, Jeehyun is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

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Assessing the prevalence of atmospheres on rocky planets around M-dwarf stars is a top priority of exoplanet science. High-energy activity from M-dwarfs can destroy the atmospheres of these planets, which could explain the lack of atmosphere detections to date. Volcanic outgassing has been proposed as a mechanism to replenish the atmospheres of tidally-heated rocky planets. L 98-59 b, a sub-Earth transiting a nearby M dwarf, was recently identified as the most promising exoplanet to detect a volcanic atmosphere. We present the transmission spectrum of L 98-59 b from four transits observed with JWST NIRSpec G395H. Although the airless model provides an adequate fit to the data based on its $\chi^2$, an SO$_2$ atmosphere is preferred by 3.6$\sigma$ over a flat line in terms of the Bayesian evidence. Such an atmosphere would likely be in a steady state where volcanism balances escape. If so, L 98-59 b must experience at least eight times as much volcanism and tidal heating per unit mass as Io. If volcanism is driven by runaway melting of the mantle, we predict the existence of a subsurface magma ocean in L 98-59 b extending up to $R_p\sim 60-90\%$. An SO$_2$-rich volcanic atmosphere o

Author

Bello-Arufe, Aaron; Damiano, Mario; Bennett, Katherine A.; Hu, Renyu; Welbanks, Luis; MacDonald, Ryan J.; Seligman, Darryl Z.; Sing, David K.; Tokadjian, Armen; Oza, Apurva; Yang, Jeehyun

Published

2025

Language

EN