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Webb telescope finds CO2 for first time in exoplanet atmosphere
by AFP Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Aug 25, 2022

A transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-39 b captured by Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) July 10, 2022, reveals the first clear evidence for carbon dioxide in a planet outside the solar system. This is also the first detailed exoplanet transmission spectrum ever captured that covers wavelengths between 3 and 5.5 microns.

The months-old James Webb Space Telescope has added another major scientific discovery to its growing list: detecting for the first time signs of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system.

Although the exoplanet would never be able to support life as we know it, the successful discovery of CO2 gives researchers hope that similar observations could be carried out on rocky objects more hospitable to life.

"My first thought: wow, we really do have a chance to detect the atmospheres of terrestrial-size planets," tweeted Natalie Batalha, a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz and one of hundreds who worked on the Webb project.

Their study of exoplanet WASP-39, a hot gas giant closely orbiting a star 700 light years away, will soon be published in the journal Nature.

"For me, it opens a door for future research on super-Earths (planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune), or even Earth-sized planets," Pierre-Olivier Lagage, an astrophysicist with France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), told AFP.

The detection of CO2 will also help scientists learn more about how WASP-39 formed, NASA said in a press release. The exoplanet, which orbits its star once every four Earth days, has a mass one-quarter that of Jupiter but a diameter 1.3 times bigger.

The frequency of its orbit and large atmosphere made WASP-39 an ideal candidate for an early test of Webb's state-of-the-art infrared sensor, known as NIRSpec.

Each time the exoplanet crosses in front of its star, it blocks out an almost imperceptible amount of light.

But around the edges of the planet, a tiny amount of light passes through the atmosphere.

Webb's highly sensitive NIRSpec can detect the small changes that the atmosphere has on the light, allowing scientists to determine its gas composition.

The Hubble and Spitzer telescopes had already detected water vapor, sodium and potassium in WASP-39's atmosphere, but carbon dioxide can now be added to that list thanks to Webb and its NIRSpec instrument.

"It was a special moment, crossing an important threshold in exoplanet sciences," said Zafar Rustamkulov, a Johns Hopkins University researcher, in the NASA press release.

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EXO WORLDS
Case solved: missing carbon monoxide was hiding in the ice
Boston MA (SPX) Aug 24, 2022
Astronomers frequently observe carbon monoxide in planetary nurseries. The compound is ultra-bright and extremely common in protoplanetary disks - regions of dust and gas where planets form around young stars - making it a prime target for scientists. But for the last decade or so, something hasn't been adding up when it comes to carbon monoxide observations, says Diana Powell, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian. A huge chunk of carbon monoxide is m ... read more

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