English

Clouds with a silicate lining: Using JWST spectra to probe atmospheric diversity in young AB Dor L dwarfs

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2026-05-06 v1 Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Abstract

We present the first full JWST NIRSpec Prism and MIRI LRS 0.6 - 14 μ\mum (R ~ 100) spectra and analysis of five ~ 133 Myr L dwarf members of the AB Doradus moving group and one probable 500\sim 500 Myr T dwarf of the Oceanus moving group with known inclination angles between ~ 239023 - 90^{\circ}: W0047+68, 2M0355+11, 2M0642+41, W1741-46, 2M2206-42, and 2M2244+20. We construct near-complete spectral energy distributions of each of our objects to measure their bolometric luminosities, and estimate their fundamental parameters (TeffT_{\text{eff}}, radius, MM and logg\log g). We use cross-sections of relevant gases to identify the species that are present in each atmosphere. Of particular interest is the silicate absorption feature at 8 - 11 μ\mum, which provides insight into the complex cloud structure of brown dwarfs. We examine this silicate absorption feature in detail and also test whether there exists a latitudinal dependence in the silicate absorption feature within a coeval sample of brown dwarfs. Various molecular absorption bands are visible in our spectra, including H2_2O, CH4_4, CO and CO2_2. The shape of the silicate absorption feature varies within our sample, and we find that 4/5 of our L type objects agree with previously observed trends stating that objects viewed equator-on have deeper silicate absorption. We highlight W1741-46 as an outlier in our sample with an unusually strong silicate absorption given its near pole-on orientation. We also present a tentative correlation between the wavelength of peak silicate absorption and inclination, which may suggest variations in cloud chemical composition or physical properties. We find an unexpected spectral diversity within our sample, which motivates future studies on these objects through atmospheric retrievals, which will determine the silicate cloud composition and reveal whether there exists a trend with inclination.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.24662,
  title  = {Clouds with a silicate lining: Using JWST spectra to probe atmospheric diversity in young AB Dor L dwarfs},
  author = {M. B. Lam and J. M. Vos and G. Suárez and C. -C. Hsu and T. P. Bickle and J. Faherty and J. Gagné and D. Bardalez Gagliuffi and B. Biller and B. Burningham and K. L. Cruz and C. V. Morley and S. Luszcz-Cook and S. Lawsky and C. L. Phillips and A. Rothermich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.24662},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

19 pages, 14 figures