Authors: Brian Seamons
Mentors:
Insitution: Utah Valley University
We compare the atmospheric compositions of WASP-39b and WASP-178b, as well as the different observing modes and analysis techniques for both observations. While both objects are gas giants, WASP-178b’s short-period orbit around its A-type host star leads to an equilibrium temperature more than double that of WASP-39b. WASP-39b was the one of the first exoplanets to be studied by JWST, and subsequently gave astronomers the first insights into JWST’s unprecedented exoplanet characterization capabilities. The data was collected using the NIRSpec PRISM observing mode, which provides broad-wavelength observations typically between 0.5 and 5.5 microns. Our intent was to use the publicly released data files and independently confirm the findings of the Early Release Science team while simultaneously validating our own data analysis pipeline. Our custom methods produced satisfactory results, ultimately yielding a transmission spectra that was consistent with that of the ERS team. Following this, we turned our attention to our second planet, WASP-178b, using data from the Cycle 1 program JWST-GO- 2055 (PI Lothringer). Using the G395H NIRSpec observing mode, which provides narrower wavelength coverage (~3-5 microns) with higher-resolution (R~3000), we constrained atmospheric conditions and molecular abundances, specifically H2O and CO. Though these two gas giants are quite unique, we present the results of each study side-by-side to highlight similarities and differences of both planetary atmospheric composition and the JWST observation modes which provided the data.