近日，美国加州大学圣迭戈分校Adam J. Burgasser团队报道了低温褐矮星大气中未耗尽磷化氢的观测。该研究于2025年11月13日发表在《科学》杂志上。

低温褐矮星和气态巨行星的大气中可能含有磷化氢分子PH3。然而，先前的观测表明，这种分子的丰度比大气化学模型预测的要低得多。

研究组报道了JWST对褐矮星Wolf 1130C大气中磷化氢的光谱观测。在4.3微米处检测到磷化氢的多条吸收线，由此计算出磷化氢的丰度为0.100±0.009 ppm。这种丰度与再现木星和土星磷化氢丰度的不平衡大气化学模型相一致，并且远高于先前报道的其他褐矮星或系外行星的丰度。这种差异可能与Wolf 1130C中比氦重的元素丰度较低有关。

附：英文原文

Title: Observation of undepleted phosphine in the atmosphere of a low-temperature brown dwarf

Author: Adam J. Burgasser, Eileen C. Gonzales, Samuel A. Beiler, Channon Visscher, Ben Burningham, Gregory N. Mace, Jacqueline K. Faherty, Zenghua Zhang, Clara Sousa-Silva, Nicolas Lodieu, Stanimir A. Metchev, Aaron Meisner, Michael Cushing, Adam C. Schneider, Genaro Suarez, Chih-Chun Hsu, Roman Gerasimov, Christian Aganze, Christopher A. Theissen

Issue&Volume: 2025-11-13

Abstract: The atmospheres of low-temperature brown dwarfs and gas giant planets are expected to contain the phosphine molecule, PH3. However, previous observations have shown much lower abundances of this molecule than predicted with atmospheric chemistry models. We report JWST spectroscopic observations of phosphine in the atmosphere of the brown dwarf Wolf 1130C. Multiple absorption lines due to phosphine have been detected around 4.3 micrometers, from which we calculated a phosphine abundance of 0.100 ± 0.009 parts per million. This abundance is consistent with disequilibrium atmospheric chemistry models that reproduced the phosphine abundances in Jupiter and Saturn and is much higher than abundances previously reported for other brown dwarfs or exoplanets. This difference may be related to the low abundance of elements heavier than helium in Wolf 1130C.

DOI: adu0401

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu0401