WASP-96b orbits its Sun-like star WASP-96 every 3.4 Earth days at a distance just one-ninth of the distance between Mercury and the Sun.[3]
The hot-Jupiter exoplanet was found via the transiting method by Coel Hellier et.al. in 2013 as part of the WASP-South survey.[1]
Atmosphere
WASP-96b's spectrum was one of the images featured in the initial science release from the James Webb Space Telescope in July 2022.[4] The spectrum confirmed the presence of water, as well as providing evidence for "clouds and hazes" within the planet's atmosphere.[3] Prior to this discovery, WASP-96b was thought to be free of clouds.[5][6]
While the light curve released confirms properties of the planet that had already been determined from other observations – the existence, size, and orbit of the planet – the transmission spectrum revealed previously hidden details of the atmosphere: the unambiguous signature of water, indications of haze, and evidence of clouds that were suspected based on prior observations.[7]
A study in 2023 measured the abundance of certain chemical species in the atmosphere of WASP-96b as seen in the table below.[8] Models of the atmosphere with patchy clouds and hazes best describes the observations through the James Webb Space Telescope.[8]
^ abcHellier, Coel; Anderson, D. R.; Cameron, A. Collier; Delrez, L.; Gillon, M.; Jehin, E.; Lendl, M.; Maxted, P. F. L.; Pepe, F.; Pollacco, D.; Queloz, D.; Ségransan, D.; Smalley, B.; Smith, A. M. S.; Southworth, J.; Triaud, A. H. M. J.; Udry, S.; West, R. G. (2013), "Transiting hot Jupiters from WASP-South, Euler and TRAPPIST: WASP-95b to WASP-101b", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 440 (3): 1982–1992, arXiv:1310.5630, Bibcode:2014MNRAS.440.1982H, doi:10.1093/mnras/stu410