No thick carbon dioxide atmosphere on the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c

Abstract

Abstract 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 1 . Thanks to the recent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), possible atmospheric constituents such as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) are now detectable 2,3 . Recent JWST observations of the innermost planet TRAPPIST-1 b showed that it is most probably a bare rock without any CO 2 in its atmosphere 4 . Here we report the detection of thermal emission from the dayside of TRAPPIST-1 c with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on JWST at 15 µm. We measure a planet-to-star flux ratio of f p / f ⁎ = 421 ± 94 parts per million (ppm), which corresponds to an inferred dayside brightness temperature of 380 ± 31 K. This high dayside temperature disfavours a thick, CO 2 -rich atmosphere on the planet. The data rule out cloud-free O 2 /CO 2 mixtures with surface pressures ranging from 10 bar (with 10 ppm CO 2 ) to 0.1 bar (pure CO 2 ). A Venus-analogue atmosphere with sulfuric acid clouds is also disfavoured at 2.6 σ confidence. Thinner atmospheres or bare-rock surfaces are consistent with our measured planet-to-star flux ratio. The absence of a thick, CO 2 -rich atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1 c suggests a relatively volatile-poor formation history, with less than $${9.5}_{-2.3}^{+7.5}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>9.5</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2.3</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>7.5</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> Earth oceans of water. If all planets in the system formed in the same way, this would indicate a limited reservoir of volatiles for the potentially habitable planets in the system.