James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

Harvard ADS: Retrievals on NIRCam transmission and emission spectra of HD 189733b with PLATON 6, a GPU code for the JWST era

Paper abstract: We present the 2.4--5.0 \um JWST/NIRCam emission spectrum of HD 189733b, along with an independent re-reduction of the previously published transmission spectrum at the same wavelengths. We use an upgraded version of PLanetary Atmospheric Tool for Observer Noobs (PLATON) to retrieve atmospheric parameters from both geometries. In transit, we obtain [M/H]=0.53_{-0.12}^{+0.13} and C/O=0.41_{-0.12}^{+0.13}, assuming a power-law haze and equilibrium chemistry with methane depletion. In eclipse, we obtain [M/H]=0.68_{-0.11}^{+0.15} and C/O=0.43_{-0.05}^{+0.06}, assuming a clear atmosphere and equilibrium chemistry without methane depletion. These results are consistent with each other, and with a re-run of our previously published joint retrieval of HST and Spitzer transmission and emission spectra. Accounting for methane depletion decreases the C/O ratio by 0.14/0.04 (transmission/emission), but changing the limb cloud parameterization does not affect the C/O ratio by more than 0.06. We detect H_2O, CO_2, CO, and H_2S in both the NIRCam transmission and emission spectra, find that methane is depleted on the terminator, and confirm with VULCAN that photochemistry is a potential cause of this depletion. We also find tentative (1.8\sigma) evidence of a dayside thermal inversion at millibar pressures. Finally, we take this opportunity to introduce a new version of PLATON. PLATON 6 supports GPU computation, speeding up the code up to 10x. It also supports free retrievals using both volume mixing ratio and centered-log ratio priors; emission from planetary surfaces of different compositions; updated opacities at improved resolution; and Pareto smoothed importance sampling leave-one-out cross validation (PSIS-LOO).