A complex structure of escaping helium spanning more than half the orbit of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121 b
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Atmospheric escape of close-in exoplanets, driven by stellar irradiation, influences their evolution, composition, and atmospheric dynamics. The near-infrared metastable helium triplet (10833 Å) has become a key probe of this process, enabling mass loss rate measurements for dozens of exoplanets. Only a few studies, however, have detected absorption beyond transit, supporting the presence of hydrodynamic outflows. None have yet precisely identified the physical extent of the out-of-transit signal, either due to non-continuous or short-duration observations. This strongly limits our ability to measure accurate mass-loss rates and to understand how the stellar environment shapes outflows. Here we present the continuous, full-orbit helium phase-curve observation of an exoplanet: the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121 b, obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS). We detect significant helium absorption at > 3σ over nearly 60% of the orbit, revealing a persistent and large-scale outflow. The signal separates into a dense leading tail moving toward the star and a trailing tail pushed away by stellar irradiation. Both appear to remain collisional far from the planet, implying strong hydrodynamic escape. While qualitatively consistent with theoretical expectations, current models cannot reproduce the full spatial and kinematic structure, limiting precise mass-loss estimates. These results demonstrate JWST's ability to map exoplanet outflows in detail and highlight its synergy with ground-based spectroscopy.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".