An early – and exciting – science result from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was announced today: the first unambiguous detection of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.
A series of light curves from Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph shows the change in brightness of three different wavelengths of light from the WASP-39 star system over time as the planet transited the star on 10 July 2022. , Joseph Olmsted Carbon dioxide is naturally present in Earth's atmosphere as part of the carbon cycle, but is also being emitted at increasing levels by human activities.
"The shape of the spectrum is unmistakable to someone like me who models exoplanet atmospheres for a living," she"This is very different from all previous exoplanet atmosphere observations where we would typically go through a much more involved process of comparing many different possible atmosphere models to the data to convince ourselves that we've detected a specific atom or molecule.
Because different gases absorb different combinations of colors, researchers can analyze small differences in the brightness of the transmitted light across a spectrum of wavelengths and determine exactly what an atmosphere is made of.Mercury The JWST team said that understanding the composition of a planet's atmosphere is important because it tells us something about the origin of the planet and how it evolved.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
James Webb Space Telescope sniffs out carbon dioxide around an alien worldNo telescope has ever detected carbon dioxide in an exoplanet atmosphere before.
Read more »
Webb Telescope: Researchers Unveil Spectacularly Large Image of SpaceIn the month the Webb Space Telescope has been up and running, one stellar image after the next [...]
Read more »
NASA's James Webb telescope has taken new images of Jupiter's moons, rings and moreThe telescope uses a camera with filters that can make a color map out of infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.
Read more »
Marvel at the James Webb Space Telescope's largest image of the cosmos yetThe latest treasure trove contains ancient galaxies and countless cosmic wonders.
Read more »
Expert Gives a Guided Tour of Stunning Webb Telescope Stephan’s Quintet ImageLast month, NASA released a batch of long-awaited, jaw-dropping images from its newest and most powerful space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In unprecedented detail, pictures revealed distant wonders such as the Carina Nebula, the Southern Ring Nebula, and Stephan's Quintet—a c
Read more »
Colorized Webb telescope photos of Jupiter show moons, rings, distant galaxiesThe world's largest and most powerful space telescope has captured incredibly detailed photographs of Jupiter in infrared light, showcasing two moons, two rings and distant galaxies.
Read more »