arXiv Open Access 2025

A Stellar Magnesium to Silicon ratio in the atmosphere of an exoplanet

Jorge A. Sanchez Peter C. B. Smith Krishna Kanumalla Luis Welbanks Michael R. Line +15 lainnya
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Abstrak

The elemental compositions of exoplanets encode information about their formation environments and internal structures. While volatile ratios such as carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) are used to trace formation location, the rock-forming elements - magnesium (Mg), silicon (Si), and iron (Fe) - govern interior mineralogy and are commonly assumed to reflect the host star's abundances. Yet this assumption remains largely untested. Ultra-hot Jupiters, gas-giant exoplanets with dayside temperatures above 3000 K, provide rare access to refractory elements that remain gaseous. Here we present high-resolution thermal emission spectroscopy of the exoplanet WASP-189b (Teq = 3354^{+27}_{-34} K) obtained with the Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) on Gemini South. We detect neutral iron (Fe I), magnesium (Mg I), silicon (Si I), water (H_2O), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydroxyl (OH) at signal-to-noise ratios exceeding 4, and retrieve their elemental abundances. We show that the Mg/Si, Fe/Mg, and Si/Fe ratios are consistent with stellar values, while the refractory-to-volatile ratio is enhanced by roughly a factor of ~2. These findings demonstrate that giant-planet atmospheres can preserve stellar-like rock-forming ratios, providing an empirical validation of the stellar-proxy assumption that underpins planetary composition and formation models across exoplanet systems.

Topik & Kata Kunci

Penulis (20)

J

Jorge A. Sanchez

P

Peter C. B. Smith

K

Krishna Kanumalla

L

Luis Welbanks

M

Michael R. Line

S

Stefan Pelletier

S

Steven Desch

P

Patrick Young

J

Jennifer Patience

J

Jacob Bean

M

Matteo Brogi

D

Dan Jaffe

G

Gregory N. Mace

M

Megan Weiner Mansfield

V

Vatsal Panwar

V

Vivien Parmentier

L

Lorenzo Pino

A

Arjun Baliga Savel

L

Lennart van Sluijs

J

Joost P. Wardenier

Format Sitasi

Sanchez, J.A., Smith, P.C.B., Kanumalla, K., Welbanks, L., Line, M.R., Pelletier, S. et al. (2025). A Stellar Magnesium to Silicon ratio in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.10904

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2025
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en
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arXiv
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