WASP-18b HST/WFC3 spectroscopic phase curves

Firstly we find that we need ecient drag to explain the very inefficient day-night recirculation observed.We demonstrate that this drag could be due to Lorentz-force drag by a magnetic field as weak as 10 gauss. Secondly, we show that a high metallicity is not required to match the large day-night temperature contrast. In fact, the effect of metallicity on the phase curve is different from cooler gas-giant counterparts because of the high-temperature chemistry in the atmosphere of WASP-18b.

Additionally, we compared the current UHJ spectroscopic phase curves, WASP-18b and WASP-103b, and show that these two planets provide a consistent picture with remarkable similarities in their measured and inferred properties. However, key differences in these properties, such as their brightness osets and radius anomalies, suggest that UHJ could be used to separate between competing theories for the inflation of gas-giant planets.