The rich chemistry of two warm-giant planets

High-resolution (HR) ground-based spectrographs have drastically improved the investigation of exoplanet atmospheres. In this scenario the near-infrared (0.9-2.45 μm) HR (R /sim 50000) spectrograph GIANO-B mounted at the Nasmyth-B focus of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) telescope is playing an important role.

With the simultaneous detection of six molecules in the atmosphere of the Hot-Jupiter HD 209458b, we have recently demonstrated (Giacobbe+2021) that exoplanetary atmospheres can show a chemical richness previously unknown -as only a few molecules had been previously detected in an exoplanetary atmosphere.  Thus, the question of whether the complexity of HD 209458b’s atmosphere is unique or other exo-atmospheres can also show such a rich molecular composition arises spontaneously.

Here we report on transmission spectroscopy observations of two warm-giant planets, namely WASP-69b, and WASP-80b, gathered within the GAPS large program aimed at detecting atomic and molecular species in exoplanet atmospheres and possibly constraining the planetary C/O ratio, which is thought to be linked to planet migration and formation mechanisms.

We present the simultaneous detection of multiple molecules in the atmosphere of each of the investigated exoplanets -thus unveiling chemical richness also in warm Jupiters for the first time- and interpret the results in terms of possible scenarios of atmospheric composition (C/O ratio, metallicity). 

The analysis presented here, together with Giacobbe+ 2021, opens a new frontier in the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres, and additional surprising discoveries are expected with both ground-based HR spectrographs, such as CRIRES+, SPIRou, and NIRPS, and the low-resolution (LR) spectrographs on board the JWST telescope.