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Exploration of Exoplanet Atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope

2026/08/06 by Sasha Hinkley, David K. Sing
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.IM

paper · pdf

Review article for Contemporary Physics (in press) on JWST's characterization of exoplanets. 47 pages, 11 figures, 335 References. Comments welcome. This article may be especially useful for researchers new to JWST, and our community may be particularly interested in the Tables listing transiting exoplanets as well as directly imaged objects observed so far with JWST

arxiv created 2026/08/06 · arxiv updated 2026/08/07

Abstract

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is providing transformative characterization capabilities for the study of both transiting and directly imaged extrasolar planets. Observations deep into the infrared in the form of both spectroscopy and coronagraphic imaging means that JWST is uniquely sensitive to most of the physical processes that dictate the properties of exoplanetary atmospheres. The observatory's thermal and pointing stability directly translates into the extreme photometric precision needed for exquisite transiting exoplanet photometry, as well as highly sensitive coronagraphic observations. Over the mission's 20-25 year lifetime, roughly 104 hours will be dedicated to observations of exoplanet atmospheres, providing a legacy data archive that will allow population-level characterization of exoplanet atmospheres spanning terrestrial planets, sub-Neptunes and gas giants. This effort will also assess the prevalence of atmospheres of rocky planets and thus the degree to which such planets may have conditions conducive to habitability.

Citations