James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

Harvard ADS: Analyzing JWST/NIRSpec Hydrogen Line Detections at TWA 27B: Constraining Accretion Properties and Geometry

Paper abstract: Hydrogen lines from forming planets are crucial for understanding planet formation. However, the number of planetary hydrogen line detections is still limited. Recent JWST/NIRSpec observations have detected Paschen and Brackett hydrogen lines at TWA 27 B (2M1207b). TWA 27 B is classified as a planetary-mass companison (PMC) rather than a planet due to its large mass ratio to the central object (~ 5 M_\mathrm{J} compared to 25 M_\mathrm{J}). Nevertheless, TWA 27 B's hydrogen line emission is expected to be same as for planets, given its small mass. We aim to constrain the accretion properties and accretion geometry of TWA 27 B, contributing to our understanding of hydrogen line emission mechanism common to both PMCs and planets. We conduct spectral fitting of four bright hydrogen lines (Pa-\alpha, Pa-\beta, Pa-\gamma, Pa-\delta) with an accretion-shock emission model tailored for forming planets. We estimate the mass accretion rate at \dot{M} ~ 3 \times 10^{-9}\, M_\mathrm{J}\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1} with our fiducial parameters, though this is subject to an uncertainty of up to factor of ten. Our analysis also indicates a dense accretion flow, n\gtrsim 10^{13}\,\mathrm{cm^{-3}} just before the shock, implying a small accretion-shock filling factor f_\mathrm{f} on the planetary surface (f_\mathrm{f} <~ 5\times10^{-4}). This finding suggests that magnetospheric accretion is occurring at TWA 27 B. Additionally, we carry out a comparative analysis of hydrogen-line emission color to identify the emission mechanism, but the associated uncertainties proved too large for definitive conclusions. This underscores the need for further high-precision observational studies to elucidate these emission mechanisms fully.