The James Web Space Telescope has detected “significant amounts” of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time. The detection, described in a paper accepted for publication in the journal Nature and located on the preprint server ArXiv, was made in the atmosphere of exoplanet WASP-39 b, a well-known planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away. The planet is passing in front of its star from our line of sight and in doing so blocks some of the light, so we know it’s there.
The James Web Space Telescope was designed to study light and determine what might be blocking certain infrared colors in the atmosphere. WASP-96b was actually one of its first scientific targets, and water vapor has already been detected on this planet before. Now, carbon dioxide has also been found.
“Previous observations of this planet with Hubble and Spitzer have given us encouraging hints that carbon dioxide may be present,” says Professor Natalie Batalha of UC Santa Cruz, who led the detection team. “The James Web Space Telescope showed a very clear presence of carbon dioxide. ”
WASP-39 b is a hot gas giant orbiting close to its star. It’s as massive as Saturn, but 1.3 times larger in diameter than Jupiter. It is roughly one-eighth the distance between the Sun and Mercury, making it an extremely hot planet with a surface temperature of 900 degrees Celsius. There is no such planet in the Solar System.
Stars and gas giants are mostly made up of light elements like hydrogen and helium, but heavier elements are critical for planet formation. Carbon dioxide is found on rocky planets such as the gas giants Saturn and Jupiter, as well as Mars and Venus, and is a key component in the atmospheres of our Solar System’s planets. A great indicator of the abundance of heavier elements in the atmosphere of the carbon dioxide gas giants.
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