Webb telescope’s first exoplanet result could help scientists understand how planets form
25 AUG 20222:55 PMBYDANIEL CLERY
Astronomers have found carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere of a Saturn-size planet 700 light-years away—the first unambiguous detection of the gas in a planet beyond the Solar System. The discovery, made by the James Webb Space Telescope, provides clues to how the planet formed. The result also shows just how quickly Webb may identify a spate of other gases, such as methane and ammonia, which could hint at a planet’s potential habitability for life.
Webb is “ushering in this new era of the atmospheric science of exoplanets,” says Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the study.
The Webb telescope is sensitive to infrared wavelengths of light that are mostly blocked by Earth’s atmosphere. It has already dazzled astronomers with its ability to bring the universe’s most distant stars and galaxies into view.
But the infrared sensitivity is also critical for researchers studying worlds much closer to home, in the Milky Way. When an exoplanet’s orbit takes it in front of its star, some of the starlight passes through the planet’s atmosphere and carries fingerprints of its composition. The atmospheric gases absorb specific wavelengths of light, which show up as dips in brightness when the starlight is spread out into a spectrum.
More:
https://www.science.org/content/article/carbon-dioxide-detected-around-alien-world-first-time
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