Methane emission from a cool brown dwarf

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, J. Davy Kirkpatrick, Aaron Meisner, Adam C. Schneider, Marc Jason Kuchner, Daniella Carolina Bardalez Gagliuffi, Charles Beichman, Peter Eisenhardt, Christopher R. Gelino, Ehsan Gharib-Nezhad, Eileen Gonzales, Federico Marocco, Austin James Rothermich and Niall Whiteford
Additional contact information
Jacqueline K. Faherty: American Museum of Natural History
Ben Burningham: University of Hertfordshire
Jonathan Gagné: Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan
Genaro Suárez: American Museum of Natural History
Johanna M. Vos: American Museum of Natural History
Sherelyn Alejandro Merchan: American Museum of Natural History
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
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
Federico Marocco: Caltech
Austin James Rothermich: American Museum of Natural History
Niall Whiteford: American Museum of Natural History

Nature, 2024, vol. 628, issue 8008, 511-514

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07190-w

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