The James Webb Telescope detects carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the exoplanet

In addition to spreading images that have become epic, James Webb Space Telescope it also makes unprecedented discoveries through the NIRSpec spectrograph. Last week, the leading space science observatory Evidence of carbon dioxide detected in the atmosphere of a gas giant planet It orbits a star similar to our Sun, 700 light-years away.

The telescope is operated by a partnership between NASA (United States Space Agency, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

With a diameter of 1.3 times that of Jupiter but a mass similar to that of Saturn, WASP-39 b is a gas giant, but unlike its cooler and more compact gas “cousins” on our planet. solar system, It has a temperature that can reach 900º C.

Giant planet orbiting very close to its host star completes its revolution in just four earth days. Therefore, its discovery, which took place in 2011, was made possible only by terrestrial observations of the subtle and periodic dimming of light, that is, a shadow that appears on its star as the planet passes in front of it.

Why is it important to discover carbon dioxide on the exoplanet?

Planets such as WASP-39 b whose orbits are viewed “from the side” rather than “from above” are ideal for analyzing planetary atmospheres. This is because different gases absorb different color combinations, so it is possible to assess the exact composition of an atmosphere through small differences in the brightness of the light transmitted by a spectrograph.

In the case of the gas giant exoplanet, the measured spectrum of the atmosphere resulted in a small “peak”. (as seen in the picture above) Scientists say it’s between 4.1 and 4.6 microns, meaning “the first clear, detailed, and indisputable evidence of carbon dioxide detected on a planet outside the Solar System.”

Natalie Batalha, principal investigator of Webb’s study of exoplanets, explains in a note that “detecting such a clear signal of carbon dioxide in WASP-39 b bodes well for detecting atmospheres on smaller, Earth-sized planets.”