NASA: James Webb discovers first sample of carbon dioxide in exoplanet’s atmosphere

James Webbspace telescope POThas just been honored with an important new discovery, revealing the first clear sign of the presence carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. This discovery provides data on the composition and formation of this celestial body, which is a gas giant exoplanet orbiting a star similar to Sun 700 light years away Land.

As specified in the official statement on the website of the department, the discovery occurred during the observation OSA-39 bthe name chosen for the exoplanet in question, the main characteristics of which are its composition of hot gas with a size equivalent to a quarter of the mass Jupiter. POT details that, unlike other cooler gaseous stars, it orbits very close to its star.

Earlier space telescopes from other agencies, such as spitzer D Hubble managed to fix the presence of water vapor, sodium and potassium in the atmosphere OSA-39bbut James Webb is the first to document the presence of carbon dioxide with his infrared sensitive instrument. “As soon as the data appeared on my screen, I was hooked by a huge function carbon dioxide”specified Zafar Rustamkulovuniversity graduate student Johns Hopkins who is part of the research team.

Another achievement in the track record of James Webb

According to what is mentioned in the report, the research team in charge used a near-infrared spectrograph (NIRSpetsfor its abbreviation in English) of James Webb observe OSA-39b. As a result, obtained after pointing the instrument’s thermal imager at the planet for more than 6 hours, a slight slope between 4.1 and 4.6 µm in the atmosphere, which is the first clear and detailed evidence carbon dioxide found on a planet outside the solar system.

The science team involved in the project explains that the device captures light from star which has been filtered atmosphere planets, and then compares it with the values ​​fixed when star does not interfere with radiation.

“Finding such a clear sign carbon dioxide in OSA-39b bodes well for detecting atmospheres on smaller Earth-sized planets.”he pointed out Natalie Batalhascientist Mr. UC Santa Cruz who leads the team.

This achievement is extremely important because no observatory has been able to measure it. chemical compound in the atmosphere of a star outside ours solar system. This is critical to determining the amount of key gases like water or methane that astronomers think exist in these celestial bodies because atoms and molecules they have characteristic patterns of wavelengths that they absorb.

“Carbon dioxide molecules are sensitive indicators of planetary formation history. By measuring this feature CO2, we can determine how much solid material versus gaseous material was used to form this gas giant planet. In the next decade James Webb will make this type of measurement for many planets, which will give insight into the details of their formation and the uniqueness of our own solar system.”said Mike Line belonging Arizona State Universityanother team member.

WASP-39 on its history with NASA

Former exoplanet OSA-39b already surprised scientists from the space agency, because it was possible to detect the presence Water in his atmosphere. Here’s how the observation recorded NIRSpets from James Webb This is just part of a much larger study that will include observations with other space telescope instruments.

The study was designed to provide reliable data obtained James Webb to the exoplanet research community as soon as possible. “The goal is to quickly analyze early scientific observations and develop open source tools for use by the scientific community. This allows contributions from all over the world and ensures that the best scientific research is obtained in the next decades of observations.”said Vivienne Parmentierco-investigator Oxford University.

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