Space Kitty Archive

Exoplanets & Biosignatures

JWST exoplanet atmospheres, temperate sub-Neptunes and rocky worlds, and the debate over claimed biosignature gases.

245 papersnewest Oct 27, 2026

Most influential

  • Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRSpec PRISM
    Zafar Rustamkulov, David K. Sing, S. Mukherjee et al. · 2023 · Nature

    Transmission spectroscopy of exoplanets has revealed signatures of water vapor, aerosols, and alkali metals in a few dozen exoplanet atmospheres. However, these previous inferences with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes were hindered by the observations' relatively narrow wavelength range and spectral resolving power, which precluded the unambiguous id…

    Article328 citationsarXiv:2211.10487doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05677-y
  • The Transit Light Source Effect: False Spectral Features and Incorrect Densities for M-dwarf Transiting Planets
    Benjamin V. Rackham, Dániel Apai, Mark S. Giampapa · 2018 · The Astrophysical Journal

    Transmission spectra are differential measurements that utilize stellar illumination to probe transiting exoplanet atmospheres. Any spectral difference between the illuminating light source and the disk-integrated stellar spectrum due to starspots and faculae will be imprinted in the observed transmission spectrum. However, few constraints exist for the exte…

    Article421 citationsarXiv:1711.05691doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaa08c
  • Carbon-bearing Molecules in a Possible Hycean Atmosphere
    Nikku Madhusudhan, Subhajit Sarkar, Savvas Constantinou et al. · 2023 · The Astrophysical Journal Letters

    The search for habitable environments and biomarkers in exoplanetary atmospheres is the holy grail of exoplanet science. The detection of atmospheric signatures of habitable Earth-like exoplanets is challenging due to their small planet-star size contrast and thin atmospheres with high mean molecular weight. Recently, a new class of habitable exoplanets, cal…

    Article279 citationsarXiv:2309.05566doi:10.3847/2041-8213/acf577
  • CHARACTERIZING TRANSITING EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERES WITH JWST
    Thomas P. Greene, Michael R. Line, Cezar Montero et al. · 2016 · The Astrophysical Journal

    We explore how well James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spectra will likely constrain bulk atmospheric properties of transiting exoplanets. We start by modeling the atmospheres of archetypal hot Jupiter, warm Neptune, warm sub-Neptune, and cool super-Earth planets with clear, cloudy, or high mean molecular weight atmospheres. Next we simulate the $λ= 1 - 11$ $…

    Article385 citationsarXiv:1511.05528doi:10.3847/0004-637x/817/1/17
  • Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRSpec G395H
    Lili Alderson, Hannah R. Wakeford, Munazza K. Alam et al. · 2023 · Nature

    Abstract Measuring the abundances of carbon and oxygen in exoplanet atmospheres is considered a crucial avenue for unlocking the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems 1,2 . Access to the chemical inventory of an exoplanet requires high-precision observations, often inferred from individual molecular detections with low-resolution space-based 3–5 an…

    Abstract excerpt by Lili Alderson et al., CC-BY, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05591-3; truncated.

    Article276 citationsdoi:10.1038/s41586-022-05591-3
  • Photochemically produced SO2 in the atmosphere of WASP-39b
    Shang‐Min Tsai, Elspeth K. H. Lee, Diana Powell et al. · 2023 · Nature

    Abstract Photochemistry is a fundamental process of planetary atmospheres that regulates the atmospheric composition and stability 1 . However, no unambiguous photochemical products have been detected in exoplanet atmospheres so far. Recent observations from the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program 2,3 found a spectral absorption…

    Abstract excerpt by Shang‐Min Tsai et al., CC-BY, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05902-2; truncated.

    Article266 citationsdoi:10.1038/s41586-023-05902-2
  • Planetary Spectrum Generator: An accurate online radiative transfer suite for atmospheres, comets, small bodies and exoplanets
    G. L. Villanueva, Michael D. Smith, Silvia Protopapa et al. · 2018 · Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer

    We have developed an online radiative-transfer suite (https://psg.gsfc.nasa.gov) applicable to a broad range of planetary objects (e.g., planets, moons, comets, asteroids, TNOs, KBOs, exoplanets). The Planetary Spectrum Generator (PSG) can synthesize planetary spectra (atmospheres and surfaces) for a broad range of wavelengths (UV/Vis/near-IR/IR/far-IR/THz/s…

    Article328 citationsarXiv:1803.02008doi:10.1016/j.jqsrt.2018.05.023
  • Thermal emission from the Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b using JWST
    Thomas P. Greene, Taylor James Bell, Elsa Ducrot et al. · 2023 · Nature

    The TRAPPIST-1 system is remarkable for its seven planets that are similar in size, mass, density, and stellar heating to the rocky planets Venus, Earth, and Mars in our own Solar System (Gillon et al. 2017). All TRAPPIST-1 planets have been observed with the transmission spectroscopy technique using the Hubble or Spitzer Space Telescopes, but no atmospheric…

    Article244 citationsarXiv:2303.14849doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05951-7
  • CHARACTERIZING TRANSITING EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERES WITH JWST
    Thomas P. Greene, Michael R. Line, Cezar Montero et al. · 2016 · eScholarship (California Digital Library)
    Article308 citations
  • Exoplanet Atmospheres
    S. Seager, D. Deming · 2010 · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics

    At the dawn of the first discovery of exoplanets orbiting sun-like stars in the mid-1990s, few believed that observations of exoplanet atmospheres would ever be possible. After the 2002 Hubble Space Telescope detection of a transiting exoplanet atmosphere, many skeptics discounted it as a one-object, one-method success. Nevertheless, the field is now firmly …

    Article435 citationsarXiv:1005.4037doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-081309-13083…
  • Observations of Transiting Exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
    Charles Beichman, Bjoern Benneke, Heather A. Knutson et al. · 2014 · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
    Article283 citationsdoi:10.1086/679566
  • No thick carbon dioxide atmosphere on the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c
    Sebastian Zieba, Laura Kreidberg, Elsa Ducrot et al. · 2023 · Nature

    Seven rocky planets orbit the nearby dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, providing a unique opportunity to search for atmospheres on small planets outside the Solar System (Gillon et al., 2017). Thanks to the recent launch of JWST, possible atmospheric constituents such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are now detectable (Morley et al., 2017, Lincowski et al., 2018}. Recent JWST …

    Article220 citationsarXiv:2306.10150doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06232-z
  • New Constraints on DMS and DMDS in the Atmosphere of K2-18 b from JWST MIRI
    Nikku Madhusudhan, Savvas Constantinou, Måns Holmberg et al. · 2025 · The Astrophysical Journal Letters

    The sub-Neptune frontier has opened a new window into the rich diversity of planetary environments beyond the solar system. The possibility of hycean worlds, with planet-wide oceans and H$_2$-rich atmospheres, significantly expands and accelerates the search for habitable environments elsewhere. Recent JWST transmission spectroscopy of the candidate hycean w…

    Article82 citationsarXiv:2504.12267doi:10.3847/2041-8213/adc1c8
  • The Detectability and Characterization of the TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanet Atmospheres with JWST
    Jacob Lustig‐Yaeger, Victoria S. Meadows, Andrew Lincowski · 2019 · The Astronomical Journal

    The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will offer the first opportunity to characterize terrestrial exoplanets with sufficient precision to identify high mean molecular weight atmospheres, and TRAPPIST-1's seven known transiting Earth-sized planets are particularly favorable targets. To assist community preparations for JWST, we use simulations of plausible p…

    Article252 citationsarXiv:1905.07070doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab21e0
  • Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRCam
    Eva-Maria Ahrer, Kevin B. Stevenson, Megan Mansfield et al. · 2023 · Nature

    Abstract Measuring the metallicity and carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio in exoplanet atmospheres is a fundamental step towards constraining the dominant chemical processes at work and, if in equilibrium, revealing planet formation histories. Transmission spectroscopy (for example, refs.1,2) provides the necessary means by constraining the abundances of oxygen- a…

    Abstract excerpt by Eva-Maria Ahrer et al., CC-BY, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05590-4; truncated.

    Article198 citationsdoi:10.1038/s41586-022-05590-4

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