REVIEW 3 major objections 5 minor 59 references
Retrieving wind properties from the ultra-hot dayside of WASP-189b with CRIRES$^+$
T0 review · 3 major / 5 minor · reviewed 2026-08-12 · deepseek-v4-flash
Pith's one-line read The dayside wind of ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-189b is best explained by a day-to-night flow of about 4.4 km/s, with no detectable equatorial jet.
desk verdict A careful, honest retrieval paper whose headline wind detection is statistically marginal; worth a serious referee, but the abstract oversells and a model comparison is missing. read the letter →
The pith
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
The reading
What carries the argument
The argument is carried by a disk-integrated velocity-profile model. The projected dayside is divided into a fine grid of cells, each assigned a radial velocity from the tidally locked rotation, a constant day-to-night wind, and a Gaussian-shaped equatorial jet whose width is a free parameter; each cell is also brightness-weighted by a linear limb-darkening law. Histogramming the cell velocities weighted by brightness produces a line profile, which is convolved onto synthetic emission spectra in logarithmic wavelength space and fitted to the data after stellar and telluric lines are removed with a principal-component filter. A model-filter step reproduces the distortions that line removal introduces, and an injection test shows that the wind-induced broadening and the red-shifted wing survive that filtering. This replaces the simpler rigid-rotation profile with a wind screen, turning a velocity-offset measurement into a wind measurement.
What would settle it
Take high-resolution K-band dayside spectra over a wider orbital-phase range around secondary eclipse and measure the CO and Fe line-centre shift as a function of sub-stellar longitude. If the shift tracks the rotating hot region, the day-to-night wind interpretation is supported; if it stays constant near 2 km/s, the remaining offset is dominated by orbital-clock or systematic effects and the wind speed would be overestimated. A hot-spot-only retrieval, with the same grid but no wind, would settle whether the extended red wing truly requires a wind; the paper states such a comparison but does not show it.
Extended reading notes
Core claim
The central discovery is that the line shape of WASP-189b's dayside emission favours a wind pattern. The paper reports that the observed CO and Fe lines are best fitted when gas moves from the sub-stellar point toward the nightside at $4.4^{+1.8}_{-2.2}$ km/s across the visible hemisphere, while the retrieved equatorial jet velocity of $1.0^{+0.9}_{-1.8}$ km/s is consistent with the absence of a jet. Adding this wind reduces the unexplained velocity offset from about 4.7 km/s to $1.9^{+1.6}_{-1.5}$ km/s, so the wind explains most but not all of the red-shift; a stronger wind would produce more line broadening than observed. The same retrieval finds an inverted temperature-pressure profile and, under equilibrium chemistry, a C/O ratio of $0.32^{+0.41}_{-0.14}$ and a metallicity of $[M/H] = 1.40^{+1.39}_{-0.60}$, and the paper argues that a bright sub-stellar hot spot alone cannot reproduce the measured red-shifted wing.
Load-bearing premise
The load-bearing premise is that the visible dayside can be described by a single uniform day-to-night wind plus a Gaussian jet superimposed on a tidally locked, linearly limb-darkened disk with no sub-stellar hot spot; if the real velocity field contains a hot spot or spatially varying winds, the retrieved speeds and the residual velocity offset will be biased.
Editorial extensions
If this is right
- A red-shift of a few km/s in a hot Jupiter's dayside spectrum can be produced by a day-to-night wind, so future detections of such offsets do not by themselves require unseen orbital or systematic errors.
- Most of the roughly 6 km/s offset in WASP-189b's CO and Fe lines is wind, with a remaining offset of about 2 km/s that could come from orbital-clock uncertainties or a sub-stellar hot spot.
- A near-zero equatorial jet supports the idea that extreme irradiation suppresses zonal jets in ultra-hot Jupiters, leaving day-to-night flow as the dominant circulation.
- An inverted temperature-pressure profile and a stellar-to-super-solar metallicity, if confirmed, indicate a strongly irradiated, heavy-element-enriched atmosphere with thermal dissociation shaping the upper layers.
- Combining transmission and dayside observations in one retrieval would use opposite wind shifts on the two hemispheres to constrain the velocity offset and wind speed more tightly than either data set alone.
Reading between the lines
- A testable extension would be phase-resolved spectroscopy: if day-to-night flow dominates, the line-centre shift should track the sub-stellar longitude as the planet rotates, whereas a fixed ephemeris offset would not vary with phase.
- The wind speed is mainly carried by the CO line shape because CO has the strongest signal; a retrieval on a wavelength setting with dominant Fe lines would test whether the wind geometry is uniform across species.
- Because the model omits a bright sub-stellar spot and the paper does not show the hot-spot-only simulation, a natural next test is to add a spot brightness map; such a spot would also produce a red-shift, so part of the retrieved 4.4 km/s wind could trade against a spot-induced shift.
- Since the posterior is consistent with no wind at about the 2-sigma level, the wind claim leans on the line-broadening side of the fit; a higher-signal-to-noise spectrum would decide between a 4 km/s wind plus small offset and a no-wind atmosphere with a large offset.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The paper presents CRIRES+ K-band dayside emission spectroscopy of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-189b. After removing stellar and telluric lines with SYSREM, the authors detect CO and Fe with a velocity offset of about 6 km/s relative to the expected planetary rest frame. They then perform a Bayesian atmospheric retrieval with petitRADTRANS, and extend it with a disk-integrated line-profile model that includes tidally locked rotation, a uniform day-to-night wind, and a Gaussian-profile equatorial jet. They report a day-to-night wind speed of 4.4+1.8-2.2 km/s and an equatorial jet velocity consistent with zero, together with a reduced residual velocity offset, an inverted temperature-pressure profile, and equilibrium-chemistry C/O and metallicity constraints. The central interpretive claim is that the dayside circulation of WASP-189b is dominated by day-to-night flow rather than by a fast zonal jet as predicted by Lee et al. (2022).
Significance. If the wind detection is statistically robust, the result is an important empirical constraint on circulation in ultra-hot Jupiters, favoring day-to-night flows over zonal jets in WASP-189b and providing a direct test of general circulation models. The paper has several genuine strengths: the SYSREM filtering effect on line shapes is validated with injection tests in Appendix B, the number of SYSREM iterations is selected objectively following Cheverall et al. (2023), the reduced data are publicly available, and the authors openly discuss degeneracies and modelling limitations. The main significance is currently limited by the marginal statistical significance of the wind signal and by the simplified kinematic model used to interpret the line profile.
major comments (3)
- [Section 5.2 and Table C.1] The headline result that the line profile is 'best fitted' by a day-to-night wind is not supported by any quantitative model comparison. The retrieved vday-night = 4.4+1.8-2.2 km/s is consistent with zero at about the 2-sigma level, as the paper itself states, and voffset is a free parameter that can absorb part of the velocity shift. The authors should compare the wind retrieval against a no-wind model (vday-night fixed to zero, with voffset left free) using Bayesian evidence, BIC, or a likelihood-ratio test, and report the resulting significance. Until this is done, the abstract and Section 6 overstate the result.
- [Sections 5.1-5.2] The line-profile model assumes a uniform day-to-night wind over the entire visible hemisphere, no sub-stellar hot spot, and a linear limb-darkening law with a free coefficient epsilon. The retrieved epsilon is unconstrained, so the brightness weighting of the disk is largely free. The statement that 'a hot spot alone can not result in the retrieved line profile' is load-bearing for the wind interpretation, but the supporting simulations are not shown or referenced. Please include these simulations or an equivalent injection test with a hot-spot model, and quantify how much the retrieved vday-night and voffset shift when a hot spot or a spatially varying wind field is included.
- [Appendix C and Fig. C.1] The posteriors of sigma_jet and epsilon fill the entire prior range, and vjet is consistent with zero within uncertainties. This means the only constrained wind parameter is vday-night, while the two unconstrained parameters add flexibility to the line-profile model. The paper should state this limitation more prominently and, ideally, repeat the wind retrieval with sigma_jet and epsilon fixed to fiducial values to demonstrate that the vday-night constraint is stable under plausible choices of these nuisance parameters.
minor comments (5)
- [Abstract] The abstract should quote the 1-sigma uncertainties on the retrieved wind speeds, since their precision is central to the claim.
- [Tables 3 and C.1] The prior range for log10 kappa_IR differs between the initial retrieval ([-15, 4]) and the wind-pattern retrieval ([-5, 5]); please clarify whether this difference is intentional and whether it affects the comparability of the retrieved T-p parameters.
- [Appendix A] The appendix title refers to 'Kp-vsys maps', but the plotted quantity is voffset as defined in Eq. (2); retitle the appendix to 'Kp-voffset maps' for consistency.
- [Section 5.2] The sentence 'We were not able to place constrains on the limb darkening coefficient' contains a typo: 'constrains' should be 'constraints'.
- [Section 3.4] The claim that the CO and Fe signals are 'stable across a wider range of iterations' is not documented; a supplementary figure or a brief quantitative statement of the iteration range would make this assertion checkable.
Circularity Check
No significant circularity: the wind speeds are free parameters fitted to the data, and the paper's self-citations are methodological, not load-bearing.
full rationale
The derivation chain is self-contained. The wind parameters vday-night and vjet are free parameters in a forward model (Table C.1: vday-night prior [0,20] km/s, vjet prior [-20,20] km/s), fitted by MCMC against the CRIRES+ residual spectra; they are not constructed from the measured velocity offset or from any other retrieved quantity. The abstract's wording 'best fitted by the presence of a day-to-night wind' is a report of the posterior mode, not a prediction of an independent quantity. The line-profile model's day-to-night wind and jet prescriptions are explicitly introduced as assumptions in Sect. 5.1, not imported as established results. Self-citations (Lesjak et al. 2023 for PSF width, Cont et al. 2022 for CCF calculation, Boldt-Christmas et al. 2024 for SYSREM considerations) are methodological tools and are not load-bearing for the central wind claim. The paper also openly acknowledges the degeneracy between wind speed and velocity offset and states that the day-to-night wind posterior is consistent with a wind-free scenario to within ~2 sigma (Sect. 5.2); this is an honest statistical caveat, not circular reasoning. Any concern about statistical marginality or absence of formal model comparison is a correctness/evidence-quality issue, not a circularity issue.
Assumptions & free parameters
free parameters (12)
- Tirr =
3270 (+600, -530) K
- log10 kappa_IR =
-0.9 (+0.5, -1.3)
- log10 gamma =
0.9 (+0.7, -0.2)
- Kp =
193.7 (+2.6, -2.5) km/s
- voffset =
1.9 (+1.6, -1.5) km/s
- v_day-night =
4.43 (+1.80, -2.19) km/s
- vjet =
1.02 (+0.93, -1.81) km/s
- sigma_jet =
0.46 (+0.37, -0.36) Rp
- epsilon =
0.47 (+0.36, -0.33)
- C/O =
0.26 (+0.32, -0.13)
- [M/H] =
1.90 (+1.83, -0.95)
- beta =
0.95 (nominal)
assumptions (6)
- domain assumption Equilibrium chemistry (fastChem) sets all abundances from C/O and [M/H], with [Fe/H]=[O/H]=[N/H]=[M/H]
- domain assumption The T-p profile follows the Guillot (2010) parametric model with Tint fixed to 200 K
- domain assumption Planet is tidally locked with orbital-period rotation (max 3.0 km/s) and a linear limb-darkening brightness law
- ad hoc to paper Wind field is a uniform day-to-night wind plus a Gaussian-profile equatorial jet
- domain assumption The Gibson et al. (2022) model filter preserves line-shape differences between wind scenarios
- domain assumption Observations at phases 0.53-0.57 are treated as full-dayside visibility with no nightside contribution
Cite this review
Pith. "Pith review of Retrieving wind properties from the ultra-hot dayside of WASP-189b with CRIRES$^+$." pith.science (2026). https://pith.science/paper/TUV4JI2F
@misc{pith2026241119662,
author = {Pith},
title = {Pith review of: Retrieving wind properties from the ultra-hot dayside of WASP-189b with CRIRES$^+$},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://pith.science/paper/TUV4JI2F}},
note = {Machine review of arXiv:2411.19662}
}
abstract
The extreme temperature gradients from day- to nightside in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters generate fast winds in the form of equatorial jets or day-to-night flows. Observations of blue-shifted and red-shifted signals in the transmission and dayside spectra of WASP-189b have sparked discussions about the nature of winds on this planet. To investigate the structure of winds in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-189b, we studied its dayside emission spectrum with CRIRES$^+$ in the spectral K band. We used the cross-correlation method to detect emission signals of CO and Fe, and employed a Bayesian framework to retrieve the atmospheric parameters relating to the temperature-pressure structure and chemistry. The retrieval incorporated a numerical model of the line profile influenced by various dynamic effects to determine the wind structure. The cross-correlation signals of CO and Fe showed a velocity offset of ~6km/s, which could be caused by a fast day-to-night wind in the atmosphere of WASP-189b. The atmospheric retrieval showed that the line profile of the observed spectra is best fitted by the presence of a day-to-night wind of 4.4km/s, while the retrieved equatorial jet velocity of 1.0km/s is consistent with the absence of such a jet. Such a wind pattern is consistent with the observed line broadening and can explain the majority of the velocity offset, while uncertainties in the ephemerides and the effects of a hot spot could also contribute to this offset. We further retrieved an inverted temperature-pressure profile and determined the C/O ratio and metallicity. We showed that red-shifts of a few km/s in the dayside spectra could be explained by day-to-night winds. Further studies combining transmission and dayside observations could advance our understanding of WASP-189b's atmospheric circulation by improving the uncertainties in the velocity offset and wind parameters.
Figures
Figures from the paper (4 more)
Reference graph
Works this paper leans on
-
[1]
, " * write output.state after.block = add.period write newline
ENTRY address archiveprefix author booktitle chapter edition editor howpublished institution eprint journal key month note number organization pages publisher school series title type volume year label extra.label sort.label short.list INTEGERS output.state before.all mid.sentence after.sentence after.block FUNCTION init.state.consts #0 'before.all := #1 ...
-
[2]
write newline
" write newline "" before.all 'output.state := FUNCTION n.dashify 't := "" t empty not t #1 #1 substring "-" = t #1 #2 substring "--" = not "--" * t #2 global.max substring 't := t #1 #1 substring "-" = "-" * t #2 global.max substring 't := while if t #1 #1 substring * t #2 global.max substring 't := if while FUNCTION word.in bbl.in " " * FUNCTION format....
-
[3]
Anderson , D. R., Temple , L. Y., Nielsen , L. D., et al. 2018, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:1809.04897
arXiv 2018
- [4]
-
[5]
Birkby, J. L., de Kok , R. J., Brogi, M., et al. 2013, : Letters, 436, L35
work page 2013
-
[6]
Boldt-Christmas , L., Lesjak , F., Wehrhahn , A., et al. 2024, , 683, A244
work page 2024
-
[7]
2002, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 390, 779
Borysow, A. 2002, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 390, 779
work page 2002
-
[8]
R., et al
Brogi , M., Emeka-Okafor , V., Line , M. R., et al. 2023, , 165, 91
2023
Show all 59 references
-
[9]
J., Madhusudhan, N., & Holmberg, M
Cheverall, C. J., Madhusudhan, N., & Holmberg, M. 2023, , 522, 661
2023
-
[10]
2024, , 688, A206
Cont , D., Nortmann , L., Yan , F., et al. 2024, , 688, A206
2024
-
[11]
2022, , 668, A53
Cont , D., Yan , F., Reiners , A., et al. 2022, , 668, A53
2022
-
[12]
2024, , 683, A67
Czesla , S., Lamp \'o n , M., Cont , D., et al. 2024, , 683, A67
2024
-
[13]
G., Gonz \'a lez, J
D \'i az, C. G., Gonz \'a lez, J. F., Levato, H., & Grosso, M. 2011, A&A, 531, A143
2011
-
[14]
J., Anglada-Escude , G., Baade, D., et al
Dorn, R. J., Anglada-Escude , G., Baade, D., et al. 2014, The Messenger, 156, 7
2014
-
[15]
J., Bristow, P., Smoker, J
Dorn, R. J., Bristow, P., Smoker, J. V., et al. 2023, A&A, 671, A24
2023
-
[16]
Flowers , E., Brogi , M., Rauscher , E., Kempton , E. M. R., & Chiavassa , A. 2019, , 157, 209
2019
-
[17]
W., Lang, D., & Goodman, J
Foreman-Mackey , D., Hogg, D. W., Lang, D., & Goodman, J. 2013, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 125, 306
2013
-
[18]
2023, , 165, 242
Gandhi , S., Kesseli , A., Zhang , Y., et al. 2023, , 165, 242
2023
-
[19]
P., Merritt, S., Nugroho, S
Gibson, N. P., Merritt, S., Nugroho, S. K., et al. 2020, , 493, 2215
2020
-
[20]
P., Nugroho , S
Gibson , N. P., Nugroho , S. K., Lothringer , J., Maguire , C., & Sing , D. K. 2022, , 512, 4618
2022
-
[21]
2010, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 520, id.A27, 13 pp., 520, A27
Guillot, T. 2010, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 520, id.A27, 13 pp., 520, A27
2010
-
[22]
J., Tennyson, J., Kaminsky, B
Harris, G. J., Tennyson, J., Kaminsky, B. M., Pavlenko, Ya . V., & Jones, H. R. A. 2006, , 367, 400
2006
-
[23]
2019, , 626, A133
Helling , C., Gourbin , P., Woitke , P., & Parmentier , V. 2019, , 626, A133
2019
-
[24]
2021, A&A, 649, A44
Helling, C., Lewis, D., Samra, D., et al. 2021, A&A, 649, A44
2021
-
[25]
W., Bovy , J., & Lang , D
Hogg , D. W., Bovy , J., & Lang , D. 2010, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:1008.4686
2010 arXiv
-
[26]
2004, in Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series, Vol
Kaeufl , H.-U., Ballester , P., Biereichel , P., et al. 2004, in Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series, Vol. 5492, Ground-based Instrumentation for Astronomy, ed. A. F. M. Moorwood & M. Iye , 1218--1227
2004
-
[27]
Kurucz , R. L. 2018, in Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, Vol. 515, Workshop on Astrophysical Opacities, 47
2018
-
[28]
2024, CRIRES+ reduced spectroscopic observations of WASP-189
Lavail, A. 2024, CRIRES+ reduced spectroscopic observations of WASP-189
2024
-
[29]
Lee, E. K. H., Prinoth, B., Kitzmann, D., et al. 2022, , 517, 240
2022
-
[30]
2020, A&A, 643, A94
Lendl, M., Csizmadia, S., Deline, A., et al. 2020, A&A, 643, A94
2020
-
[31]
2023, , 678, A23
Lesjak , F., Nortmann , L., Yan , F., et al. 2023, , 678, A23
2023
-
[32]
2017, , 469, 4102
Madhusudhan , N., Bitsch , B., Johansen , A., & Eriksson , L. 2017, , 469, 4102
2017
-
[33]
P., van Boekel , R., et al
Molli \`e re, P., Wardenier, J. P., van Boekel , R., et al. 2019, A&A, 627, A67
2019
-
[34]
I., Murray-Clay , R., & Bergin , E
\"O berg , K. I., Murray-Clay , R., & Bergin , E. A. 2011, , 743, L16
2011
-
[35]
R., Bean , J
Parmentier , V., Line , M. R., Bean , J. L., et al. 2018, , 617, A110
2018
-
[36]
L., Kyuberis , A
Polyansky , O. L., Kyuberis , A. A., Zobov , N. F., et al. 2018, , 480, 2597
2018
-
[37]
J., Kitzmann , D., et al
Prinoth , B., Hoeijmakers , H. J., Kitzmann , D., et al. 2022, Nature Astronomy, 6, 449
2022
-
[38]
J., Pelletier , S., et al
Prinoth , B., Hoeijmakers , H. J., Pelletier , S., et al. 2023, , 678, A182
2023
-
[39]
& Menou , K
Rauscher , E. & Menou , K. 2010, , 714, 1334
2010
-
[40]
E., Rothman, L
Richard, C., Gordon, I. E., Rothman, L. S., et al. 2012, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 113, 1276
2012
-
[41]
S., Gordon , I
Rothman , L. S., Gordon , I. E., Babikov , Y., et al. 2013, , 130, 4
2013
-
[42]
S., Gordon, I
Rothman, L. S., Gordon, I. E., Barber, R. J., et al. 2010, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 111, 2139
2010
-
[43]
2023, , 268, 2
Saha , S. 2023, , 268, 2
2023
-
[44]
V., Borsa , F., Pino , L., et al
Seidel , J. V., Borsa , F., Pino , L., et al. 2023, , 673, A125
2023
-
[45]
V., Ehrenreich , D., Bourrier , V., et al
Seidel , J. V., Ehrenreich , D., Bourrier , V., et al. 2020, , 641, L7
2020
-
[46]
P., Fortney , J
Showman , A. P., Fortney , J. J., Lewis , N. K., & Shabram , M. 2013, , 762, 24
2013
-
[47]
Showman , A. P. & Guillot , T. 2002, , 385, 166
2002
-
[48]
2015, A&A, 576, A77
Smette, A., Sana, H., Noll, S., et al. 2015, A&A, 576, A77
2015
-
[49]
G., France , K., Fossati , L., et al
Sreejith , A. G., France , K., Fossati , L., et al. 2023, , 954, L23
2023
-
[50]
2022, A&A, 662, A101
Stangret, M., Casasayas-Barris , N., Pall \'e , E., et al. 2022, A&A, 662, A101
2022
-
[51]
W., Kitzmann , D., Patzer , A
Stock , J. W., Kitzmann , D., Patzer , A. B. C., & Sedlmayr , E. 2018, , 479, 865
2018
-
[52]
2005, , 356, 1466
Tamuz, O., Mazeh, T., & Zucker, S. 2005, , 356, 1466
2005
-
[53]
& Komacek , T
Tan , X. & Komacek , T. D. 2019, , 886, 26
2019
-
[54]
Wende , S., Reiners , A., Seifahrt , A., & Bernath , P. F. 2010, , 523, A58
2010
-
[55]
2023, , 672, A107
Yan , F., Nortmann , L., Reiners , A., et al. 2023, , 672, A107
2023
-
[56]
2022, A&A, 661, L6
Yan, F., Pall \'e , E., Reiners, A., et al. 2022, A&A, 661, L6
2022
-
[57]
2020, A&A, 640, L5
Yan, F., Pall \'e , E., Reiners, A., et al. 2020, A&A, 640, L5
2020
-
[58]
N., Barber, R
Yurchenko, S. N., Barber, R. J., & Tennyson, J. 2011, , 413, 1828
2011
-
[59]
M.-R., & Rauscher, E
Zhang, J., Kempton, E. M.-R., & Rauscher, E. 2017, The Astrophysical Journal, 851, 84
2017
Reviewed August 12, 2026 · model on record in the stance chip above.
Discussion (0). Continue with ORCID to comment.