Limb Asymmetries on WASP-39b: A Multi-GCM Comparison of Chemistry, Clouds, and Hazes
Researchers compared five General Circulation Models (GCMs) to explain limb asymmetries observed on WASP-39b, specifically focusing on temperature and chemical features like $\text{CO}_2$. While models agreed on temperature differences, they failed to reproduce the large $\sim 2000$ ppm asymmetry in the $\text{CO}_2$ feature. This suggests that clouds are not the main cause, pointing toward unexplored cloud microphysics or metallicity as key missing factors.