Osiris revisited: Confirming a solar metallicity and low C/O in HD 209458b (2506.16232v1)

Abstract: HD 209458b is the prototypical hot Jupiter and one of the best targets available for precise atmosphere characterisation. Now that spectra from both Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are available, we can reveal the atmospheric properties in unprecedented detail. In this study, we perform a new data reduction and analysis of the original HST/WFC3 spectrum, accounting for the wavelength dependence of the instrument systematics that was not considered in previous analyses. This allows us to precisely and robustly measure the much-debated H$2$O abundance in HD 209458b's atmosphere. We combine the newly reduced spectrum with archival JWST/NIRCam data and run free chemistry atmospheric retrievals over the 1.0 - 5.1 $\mu$m wavelength range, covering possible features of multiple absorbing species, including CO$_2$, CO, CH$_4$, NH$_3$, HCN, Na, SO$_2$, and H$_2$S. We detect H$_2$O and CO$_2$ robustly at above 7 $\sigma$ significance, and find a 3.6 $\sigma$ preference for cloudy models compared to a clear atmosphere. For all other absorbers we tested, only upper limits of abundance can be measured. We use Bayesian model averaging to account for a range of different assumptions about the cloud properties, resulting in a water volume mixing ratio of $0.95^{+0.35}{-0.17} :\times$ solar and a carbon dioxide abundance of $0.94^{+0.16}_{-0.09} :\times$ solar. Both results are consistent with solar values and comparable to predictions from the VULCAN 1D photochemistry model. Combining these values with a prior on the CO abundance from ground-based measurements, we derive an overall atmospheric composition comparable to solar metallicity of $\mathrm{[M/H]} = 0.10^{+0.41}_{-0.40}$ and very low C/O of $0.054^{+0.080}_{-0.034}$ with a 3 $\sigma$ upper limit of 0.454. This indicates a strong enrichment in oxygen and depletion in carbon during HD 209458b's formation.