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Methane emission from a cool brown dwarf

Author

Listed:
  • Jacqueline K. Faherty

    (American Museum of Natural History
    The Graduate Center City University of New York)

  • Ben Burningham

    (University of Hertfordshire)

  • Jonathan Gagné

    (Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan
    Université de Montréal)

  • Genaro Suárez

    (American Museum of Natural History)

  • Johanna M. Vos

    (American Museum of Natural History
    Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin)

  • Sherelyn Alejandro Merchan

    (American Museum of Natural History
    Hunter College)

  • Caroline V. Morley

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Melanie Rowland

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Brianna Lacy

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Rocio Kiman

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • Dan Caselden

    (American Museum of Natural History)

  • J. Davy Kirkpatrick

    (Caltech)

  • Aaron Meisner

    (NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory)

  • Adam C. Schneider

    (United States Naval Observatory)

  • Marc Jason Kuchner

    (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

  • Daniella Carolina Bardalez Gagliuffi

    (American Museum of Natural History
    Amherst College)

  • Charles Beichman

    (Caltech)

  • Peter Eisenhardt

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • Christopher R. Gelino

    (Caltech)

  • Ehsan Gharib-Nezhad

    (NASA Ames Research Center)

  • Eileen Gonzales

    (San Francisco State University
    Cornell University)

  • Federico Marocco

    (Caltech)

  • Austin James Rothermich

    (American Museum of Natural History
    The Graduate Center City University of New York)

  • Niall Whiteford

    (American Museum of Natural History)

Abstract

Beyond our Solar System, aurorae have been inferred from radio observations of isolated brown dwarfs1,2. Within our Solar System, giant planets have auroral emission with signatures across the electromagnetic spectrum including infrared emission of H3+ and methane. Isolated brown dwarfs with auroral signatures in the radio have been searched for corresponding infrared features, but only null detections have been reported3. CWISEP J193518.59-154620.3. (W1935 for short) is an isolated brown dwarf with a temperature of approximately 482 K. Here we report James Webb Space Telescope observations of strong methane emission from W1935 at 3.326 μm. Atmospheric modelling leads us to conclude that a temperature inversion of approximately 300 K centred at 1–10 mbar replicates the feature. This represents an atmospheric temperature inversion for a Jupiter-like atmosphere without irradiation from a host star. A plausible explanation for the strong inversion is heating by auroral processes, although other internal and external dynamical processes cannot be ruled out. The best-fitting model rules out the contribution of H3+ emission, which is prominent in Solar System gas giants. However, this is consistent with rapid destruction of H3+ at the higher pressure where the W1935 emission originates4.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacqueline K. Faherty & Ben Burningham & Jonathan Gagné & Genaro Suárez & Johanna M. Vos & Sherelyn Alejandro Merchan & Caroline V. Morley & Melanie Rowland & Brianna Lacy & Rocio Kiman & Dan Caselden, 2024. "Methane emission from a cool brown dwarf," Nature, Nature, vol. 628(8008), pages 511-514, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:628:y:2024:i:8008:d:10.1038_s41586-024-07190-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07190-w
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