Université de Montréal (DBA University of Montreal|Université de Montréal)
Diamonds are Forever: Probing the Carbon Budget and Formation History of the Ultra-Puffy hot Jupiter WASP-127b — Following the JWST ERS and Cycle 1 GO Announcement of Opportunity published on June 14, 2021, the CSA is providing funding via a Grant Agreement to the university to conduct their research using the JWST data. 

Hot Jupiters present an unprecedented opportunity to answer long-standing question regarding the formation processes of giant planets by measuring the carbon-to-oxygen ratio of their atmospheres. WASP-127b currently harbours both the strongest known water and carbon absorption features of any exoplanet to date as measured from HST and Spitzer. Unfortunately, those observations cannot distinguish between a CO2-rich low C/O case, or a CO-rich high C/O case. Both of these scenarios would have drastically different implications not only regarding WASP-127b's atmospheric chemistry, but also in terms of what mechanisms are at play during giant planet formation. We propose to observe a single transit of the ultra-puffy hot Jupiter WASP-127b using NIRSpec BOTS to determine what is the 