In a remarkable display of its precision and accuracy, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, has captured definitive evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away.
In a remarkable display of its precision and accuracy, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, has captured definitive evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away.
The result, which is accepted for publication in Nature, provides important insights into the composition and formation of the exoplanet and is indicative of Webb’s ability to detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets. And beyond that, better understanding such exoplanets could lead to finding worlds that could harbour extraterrestrial life.
The team that made the discovery obtained time on the telescope through an Early Release Science program, which was chosen to collect some of Webb’s first data after the start of its scientific operations in late June.
Led by Natalie Batalha of the University of California Santa Cruz, the team includes astronomers from all over the world, including Université de Montréal's Björn Benneke, who is also a member of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx).
Read more at University of Montreal
Image: Illustration showing what the exoplanet WASP-39 b could look like, based on current understanding of the planet. (CREDIT: NASA/ESA/CSA/J. OLMSTED)
