GEMS JWST: HATS-75 b A Giant Planet with a Subsolar Metallicity Atmosphere Orbiting an M Dwarf

Abstract HATS-75 b is one of the recently discovered Giant Exoplanets Around M-dwarf Stars (GEMS) with a transmission spectrum shaped by both its atmosphere and the active stellar surface it transits. As part of a JWST program studying seven GEMS, we observed three transits of HATS-75 b with the NIRSpec PRISM instrument (0.6–5.3 μ m). The planet’s spectra exhibit a slightly larger transit depth at shorter wavelengths, indicative of hazes or stellar contamination due to stellar heterogeneities outside the transit chord, i.e., the transit light source (TLS) effect. While both a hazy atmospheric model or TLS model can replicate the transmission spectrum, independent evidence (e.g., stellar rotation, spot-crossing events) favors a model that includes contamination from unocculted starspots and faculae. Within this stellar heterogeneity/TLS-based framework, atmospheric retrievals yield remarkably low atmospheric metallicity ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">log</mml:mi> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:mo stretchy="false">[</mml:mo> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">M</mml:mi> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">H</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">]</mml:mo> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.7</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.76</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.92</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> ) and supersolar carbon-to-oxygen ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">C</mml:mi> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.0</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.09</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.40</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> ), which paired with a best-fit interior model with bulk metallicity of Z p = 0.20 ± 0.04 implies poor vertical mixing within the planet. Retrievals also detect robust absorption signatures of CH 4 , CO, and CO 2 . We obtain only an upper limit for H 2 O, consistent with its atmospheric spectral features being masked by stellar contamination. These results underscore the importance of accounting for stellar heterogeneity when interpreting exoplanet transmission spectra and highlight HATS-75 b as a significant asset to our understanding of giant exoplanets around M dwarfs with JWST.