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A roadmap for the atmospheric characterization of terrestrial exoplanets with JWST

Nature Astronomy volume 8, pages 810–818 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ultracool dwarf stars are abundant, long-lived and uniquely suited to enable the atmospheric study of transiting terrestrial companions with the JWST. Among them, the most prominent is the M8.5V star TRAPPIST-1 and its seven planets. While JWST Cycle 1 observations have started to yield preliminary insights into the planets, they have also revealed that their atmospheric exploration requires a better understanding of their host star. Here we propose a roadmap to characterize the TRAPPIST-1 system — and others like it — in an efficient and robust manner with JWST. We notably recommend that — although more challenging to schedule — multi-transit windows be prioritized to mitigate the effects of stellar activity and gather up to twice more transits per JWST hour spent. We conclude that, for such systems, planets cannot be studied in isolation by small programmes but rather need large-scale, joint space- and ground-based initiatives to fully exploit the capabilities of JWST for the exploration of terrestrial planets.

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Fig. 1: The UCD opportunity.
Fig. 2: Stellar activity challenges spectral analysis of M-dwarf systems.
Fig. 3: Flowchart of a roadmap for the atmospheric characterization of terrestrial exoplanets with JWST.
Fig. 4: Constraining the surface heterogeneities of a host star.
Fig. 5: On the frequency of planetary transits in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

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Data availability

The data shown in Fig. 1b are drawn from the NASA Exoplanet Archive (accessed 29 June 2023). The transit timings behind the histogram in Fig. 5a and the suite of selected multi-transit windows in Fig. 5b are obtained from ref. 43. All data used to create the figures are publicly available at https://zenodo.org/records/11388689.

Code availability

The stellar spectra (Figs. 2 and 4) were generated with’speclib’81. The atmospheric spectra were generated with ‘Tierra’82. The light curve model (Fig. 4) was generated with ‘fleck’83.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Julien de Wit, René Doyon.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Julien de Wit, Benjamin V. Rackham, David Berardo, Prajwal Niraula, Zoë de Beurs, Sara Seager, Khalid Barkaoui & Artem Burdanov

  2. Department of Physics, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    René Doyon, Olivia Lim & Björn Benneke

  3. Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    René Doyon, Olivia Lim, Björn Benneke, Charles Cadieux, Neil J. Cook, Lisa Dang, David Lafrenière, Caroline Piaulet, Michael Radica & Pierre-Alexis Roy

  4. Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Benjamin V. Rackham & Sara Seager

  5. Paris Region Fellow, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action, Paris, France

    Elsa Ducrot

  6. AIM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Elsa Ducrot & Pierre-Olivier Lagage

  7. Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany

    Laura Kreidberg

  8. Institut de Ciències de l’Espai, Barcelona, Spain

    Ignasi Ribas

  9. Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

    Ignasi Ribas

  10. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Aishwarya Iyer

  11. Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany

    Alexander Shapiro, Nadiia Kostogryz & Veronika Witzke

  12. Astrobiology Research Unit, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Michaël Gillon, Lionel Garcia, Khalid Barkaoui & Laetitia Delrez

  13. Department of Astronomy and Astrobiology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Eric Agol & Victoria Meadows

  14. NASA Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, Virtual Planetary Laboratory Team, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Eric Agol & Victoria Meadows

  15. Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Adam J. Burgasser

  16. Blackett Laboratory, Astrophysics Group, Imperial College London, London, UK

    James E. Owen & Subhanjoy Mohanty

  17. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Jonathan J. Fortney

  18. Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Bordeaux, University of Bordeaux, CNRS, B18N, Pessac, France

    Franck Selsis & Martin Turbet

  19. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Aaron Bello-Arufe & Renyu Hu

  20. Observatoire astronomique de l’université de Genève, Versoix, Switzerland

    Emeline Bolmont

  21. Centre Vie dans l’Univers, Faculté des sciences, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland

    Emeline Bolmont

  22. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Nicolas Cowan

  23. Department of Physics, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

    Nicolas Cowan

  24. Department of Astronomy, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Chuanfei Dong & Ziyu Huang

  25. Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jeremy J. Drake & Federico Fraschetti

  26. Space Science and Astrobiology Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    Thomas Greene & Taylor J. Bell

  27. Astronomy Unit, School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Thomas Haworth

  28. Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Renyu Hu

  29. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA

    Stephen R. Kane & Edward W. Schwieterman

  30. LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, Meudon, France

    Pierre Kervella, Benjamin Charnay & Quentin Kral

  31. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Daniel Koll

  32. Department of Earth and Space Sciences/Astrobiology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Joshua Krissansen-Totton

  33. Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Tim Lichtenberg

  34. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA

    Jacob Lustig-Yaeger

  35. Department of Physics and Institute for Fusion Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Manasvi Lingam

  36. Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA

    Manasvi Lingam

  37. Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique/IPSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université PSL, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Paris, France

    Martin Turbet

  38. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Sara Seager

  39. Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain

    Khalid Barkaoui

  40. BAER Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA, USA

    Taylor J. Bell

  41. Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Ryan Cloutier

  42. CFisUC, Departamento de Física, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Alexandre C. M. Correia

  43. IMCCE, UMR8028 CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Université, Paris, France

    Alexandre C. M. Correia

  44. Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Tansu Daylan

  45. Space sciences, Technologies and Astrophysics Research (STAR) Institute, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Laetitia Delrez & Emmanuel Jehin

  46. SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Leiden, the Netherlands

    Billy Edwards

  47. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    Thomas J. Fauchez

  48. Department of Physics, Integrated Space Science and Technology Institute, American University, Washington DC, USA

    Thomas J. Fauchez

  49. Department of Astronomy and Carl Sagan Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Laura Flagg & Jake D. Turner

  50. Lunar and Planetary Laboratory/Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Federico Fraschetti & Sukrit Ranjan

  51. Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA, USA

    Jacob Haqq-Misra

  52. Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center, Berlin, Germany

    Nicolas Iro

  53. Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, ND, USA

    Ray Jayawardhana

  54. Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Meng Jin

  55. Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Edwin Kite

  56. Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Daniel Kitzmann

  57. Department of Mathematics, naXys Research Institute, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium

    Anne-Sophie Libert

  58. Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Beibei Liu

  59. Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Brett M. Morris

  60. Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Catriona A. Murray

  61. Instituto de Astrofsica de Andaluca, Granada, Spain

    Francisco J. Pozuelos

  62. DTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

    Alexander Rathcke

  63. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Amaury Triaud

  64. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, USA

    Michael J. Way

  65. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Theoretical Astrophysics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Michael J. Way

Consortia

TRAPPIST-1 JWST Community Initiative

  • Julien de Wit
  • , René Doyon
  • , Benjamin V. Rackham
  • , Olivia Lim
  • , Elsa Ducrot
  • , Laura Kreidberg
  • , Björn Benneke
  • , Ignasi Ribas
  • , David Berardo
  • , Prajwal Niraula
  • , Aishwarya Iyer
  • , Alexander Shapiro
  • , Nadiia Kostogryz
  • , Veronika Witzke
  • , Michaël Gillon
  • , Eric Agol
  • , Victoria Meadows
  • , Adam J. Burgasser
  • , James E. Owen
  • , Jonathan J. Fortney
  • , Franck Selsis
  • , Aaron Bello-Arufe
  • , Zoë de Beurs
  • , Emeline Bolmont
  • , Nicolas Cowan
  • , Chuanfei Dong
  • , Jeremy J. Drake
  • , Lionel Garcia
  • , Thomas Greene
  • , Thomas Haworth
  • , Renyu Hu
  • , Stephen R. Kane
  • , Pierre Kervella
  • , Daniel Koll
  • , Joshua Krissansen-Totton
  • , Pierre-Olivier Lagage
  • , Tim Lichtenberg
  • , Jacob Lustig-Yaeger
  • , Manasvi Lingam
  • , Martin Turbet
  • , Sara Seager
  • , Khalid Barkaoui
  • , Taylor J. Bell
  • , Artem Burdanov
  • , Charles Cadieux
  • , Benjamin Charnay
  • , Ryan Cloutier
  • , Neil J. Cook
  • , Alexandre C. M. Correia
  • , Lisa Dang
  • , Tansu Daylan
  • , Laetitia Delrez
  • , Billy Edwards
  • , Thomas J. Fauchez
  • , Laura Flagg
  • , Federico Fraschetti
  • , Jacob Haqq-Misra
  • , Ziyu Huang
  • , Nicolas Iro
  • , Ray Jayawardhana
  • , Emmanuel Jehin
  • , Meng Jin
  • , Edwin Kite
  • , Daniel Kitzmann
  • , Quentin Kral
  • , David Lafrenière
  • , Anne-Sophie Libert
  • , Beibei Liu
  • , Subhanjoy Mohanty
  • , Brett M. Morris
  • , Catriona A. Murray
  • , Caroline Piaulet
  • , Francisco J. Pozuelos
  • , Michael Radica
  • , Sukrit Ranjan
  • , Alexander Rathcke
  • , Pierre-Alexis Roy
  • , Edward W. Schwieterman
  • , Jake D. Turner
  • , Amaury Triaud
  •  & Michael J. Way

Contributions

J.d.W. and R.D. led this community-supported project. B.V.R. led the production of the figures together with J.d.W., R.D., O.L., B.B., P.N., D.B. and Z.d.B. E.D. and L.K. led the discussions associated with emission studies. I.R. led the discussions associated with complementary ground-based studies. A.I., A.S., N.K. and V.W. led the discussions related to stellar models. All authors discussed the topics in the paper, contributed to the writing and commented on the paper at all stages.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julien de Wit.

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TRAPPIST-1 JWST Community Initiative. A roadmap for the atmospheric characterization of terrestrial exoplanets with JWST. Nat Astron 8, 810–818 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02298-5

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