NASA’s Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide in Exoplanet Atmosphere
Image by James Webb Space Telescope
Discovery Alert: Webb has captured the first clear evidence of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere of a planet outside of our solar system! 📢
WASP-39 b is a gas giant closely orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light years away. For this planet, one year — or a complete orbit around its star — is only four Earth days.
We learn about an exoplanet’s atmosphere by breaking its light into components and creating a spectrum. Think of it as a barcode. All the elements and molecules present have characteristic signatures in that “barcode” that we can read. Though missions like Hubble and Spitzer previously detected water vapor, sodium, and potassium, it took Webb’s extraordinary infrared sensitivity to reveal the presence of CO2 in this planet’s atmosphere.
Understanding the composition of a planet’s atmosphere can help us learn more about its origin and evolution. Webb’s success with this gas giant offers evidence that it could be able to detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-detects-car…
Credit: Artist Illustration – NASA, ESA, CSA, and L. Hustak (STScI)
Science – The JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Team
Download the unwatermarked artist illlustration here: webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/042/01GB2RY4…
Image description:
Illustration of a planet and its star on an empty black background. The planet is large, in the foreground at the center and the star is smaller, in the background at the upper left. The planet has a fuzzy orange-blue atmosphere with hints of longitudinal cloud bands below. The left quarter of the planet (the side facing the star) is lit, while the rest is in shadow. The star is bright yellowish-white, with no clear features.
