English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Transmission spectroscopy is still the preferred characterization techniquefor exoplanet atmospheres, although it presents unique challenges whichtranslate into characterization bottlenecks when robust mitigation strategiesare missing. Stellar contamination is one of such challenges that can overpowerthe planetary signal by up to an order of magnitude, and thus not accountingfor stellar contamination can lead to significant biases in the derivedatmospheric properties. Yet, accounting for stellar contamination may not bestraightforward, as important discrepancies exist between state-of-the-artstellar models and measured spectra and between models themselves. Here weexplore the extent to which stellar models can be used to reliably correct forstellar contamination and yield a planet's uncontaminated transmissionspectrum. We find that (1) discrepancies between stellar models can dominatethe noise budget of JWST transmission spectra of planets around stars withheterogeneous photospheres; (2) the true number of unique photospheric spectralcomponents and their properties can only be accurately retrieved when thestellar models have a sufficient fidelity; and (3) under such optimisticcircumstances the contribution of stellar contamination to the noise budget ofa transmission spectrum is considerably below that of the photon noise for thestandard transit observation setup. Therefore, we suggest (1) increased effortstowards development of model spectra of stars and their active regions in adata-driven manner; and (2) the development of empirical approaches forderiving spectra of photospheric components using the observatories with whichthe atmospheric explorations are carried out.

Towards robust corrections for stellar contamination in JWST exoplanet transmission spectra