JWST Finds a Clear, Unambiguous Signal for Carbon Dioxide in an Exoplanet’s Atmosphere

The first unambiguous detection of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet has been announced. This is the first evidence of carbon dioxide on a planet outside our solar system.

The hot gas giant WASP-39b is 700 light-years away and has a mass similar to that of Saturn. The WASP consortium used a ground-based telescope to discover the planet in 2011.

There was a lot of water in the exoplanet's atmosphere, as well as a lot of salts and minerals. The presence of carbon dioxide on this planet has been confirmed by JWST.

The University of Maryland astronomer, who was part of the team that was able to identify CO2 in the atmosphere of WASP 39 b, said that the telescope they had was not able to produce the right wavelength spectrum. The discovery shows that the promise of being a transformational facility for astronomy is being fulfilled.

Natalie Batalha of the University of California at Santa Cruz is the leader of the team. Over 300 scientists from around the world are taking part.

The paper has been accepted for publication in Nature and will be online next week.

Carbon dioxide is present in Earth's atmosphere as part of the carbon cycle, but is also being released by human activities. It is important for scientists to find CO2 in the atmosphere of another world.

One area of research that was highly anticipated was studying exoplanet atmospheres. The team used the telescope to observe WASP 39 b. The presence of carbon dioxide was immediately apparent when Kempton received an early version of the spectrum.

She said that the shape of the spectrum is unmistakable to her. In previous exoplanet atmosphere observations, we would typically compare many different atmosphere models to the data to convince ourselves that we have detected a specific atom or molecule. The CO2 is just sitting there in plain sight and waving. I'm here, I'm here.

There is a small hill between 4.1 and 4.5 microns in the spectrum of the exoplanets atmosphere. Kempton said that no other observatory has ever measured such subtle differences in brightness of so many individual colors across the 3 to 5.5-micron range.

She said that access to this part of the spectrum is important for measuring abundances of gases like water and methane, and carbon dioxide, which are thought to exist in many different types of exoplanets.

WASP 39 was measured for 8 hours and waited for it to be overtaken by the planet WASP 39b. The transit technique used by NASA to find exoplanets is the same as it was in the past.

JWST can observe a transit in hundreds of colors all at the same time. She said that the JWST has the ability to spread white light into rainbow-like colors. It was good to detect a clear signal of carbon dioxide on WASP-39 b.

The starlight is partially obscured by the planet during a transit. Light is sent through the atmosphere. Researchers can determine exactly what an atmosphere is made of by analyzing small differences in the brightness of the transmitted light across a spectrum of wavelength.

WASP 39 b is very close to its star, and can be seen in just over four Earth days. The team knew that WASP 39 b was an ideal target because of its atmosphere and frequent transits.

Sarah Kendrew is a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and she said it was amazing to see the data produced so early in the mission.

Understanding the composition of a planet's atmosphere is important because it tells us a lot about the origin and evolution of the planet.

The first time we saw the data was like reading a poem in its entirety. The Early Release Science data shows that smaller and cooler exoplanets are within its reach, and these first results are just the start.

The team hopes that this early release will encourage other teams to work together and share the data that is being produced.

The goal is to analyze the Early Release Science observations quickly and develop open- source tools for the science community. The best science will come out of the coming decades of observations, thanks to this.

Further reading includes sources and further reading.

The name of the person is, of course, ESA.

Webb/STScI.

ArXiv