Atmospheric Characterization of the Super-Jupiter HIP 99770 b with KPIC

Young, self-luminous super-Jovian companions discovered by direct imaging provide a challenging test for planet formation and evolution theories. By spectroscopically characterizing the atmospheric compositions of these super-Jupiters, we can constrain their formation histories. Here we present studies of the recently discovered HIP 99770 b, a 16 MJup high-contrast companion on a 17 au orbit, using the fiber-fed high-resolution spectrograph KPIC (R ∼ 35,000) on the Keck II telescope. Our K-band observations led to detections of H2O and CO in the atmosphere of HIP 99770 b. We carried out free retrieval analyses using petitRADTRANS to measure its chemical abundances, including the metallicity and C/O ratio, projected rotation velocity (vsini), and radial velocity (RV). We found that the companion’s atmosphere has C/O =0.55−0.04+0.06 and [M/H] =0.26−0.23+0.24 (1σ confidence intervals), values consistent with those of the Sun and with a companion formation via gravitational instability or core accretion. The projected rotation velocity vsin(i)