A new era of research on worlds outside our solar system will be ushered in by the discovery of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.
The first campaign focused on exoplanets, which are planets that are outside the solar system. WASP 39 b is a hot gas giant that is 700 light-years away from Earth.
The Hubble Space Telescope and the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope were used to observe the planet, which was larger than Jupiter. The previous observations showed the presence of some gasses in the planet's atmosphere, but it wasn't until the signature of carbon dioxide was found that scientists realized it.
As soon as the data appeared on my screen, the whopping carbon dioxide feature grabbed me. It was a special moment when it happened.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is live.
Carbon dioxide has never been found on an alien planet. Scientists hope that the compound can help them understand the history of the planets where it's found.
The director of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and co-author of a paper about the discovery said that it was a major milestone for exoplanet atmosphere characterisation. Carbon dioxide helps us measure the entire carbon and oxygen inventory of the atmosphere, which is very sensitive to the conditions in the disk where the planet formed.
It is possible to determine how far from its star the planet formed and how much solid and gaseous material it accumulated.
The discovery was made using a highly sensitive instrument that splits incoming light into a barcode-like spectrum that shows how objects absorb light. Researchers compare the star's typical light to light seen through the atmosphere as the planet passes in front of it, rather than capturing direct images of the exoplanet or its atmosphere.
The WASP-39 b was measured on July 10, two days before the official release of the images.
The researchers think the telescope will be able to detect carbon dioxide in the atmospheres of other planets.
The exoplanet community has been looking for the signature of carbon dioxide for a long time. It will be possible to detect carbon dioxide for hot Jupiters, as well as smaller, cooler planets more like our own Earth, thanks to the new capabilities of the JWST.
WASP-39 b is very close to its parent star, WASP-39, at less than 20 miles from Earth. The planet can only be seen through the transits it makes around WASP 39, which causes brief dips in the star's brightness.
There is a preprint of the paper on arXiv.org, which can be found in the new tab.
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