The James Webb Space Telescope made a very important discovery for science: the first clear evidence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the Solar System. According to the POT, the discovery occurred on the exoplanet WASP-39 b.
The agency notes that WASP-39 b is a hot gas giant with a mass about a quarter of that of Jupiter, about the same as Saturn, and a diameter 1.3 times that of Jupiter.
This gas giant planet orbits a star similar to the Sun, and is located 700 light years from Earth.
The discovery, made by a team led by Natalie Batalhafrom the University of California at Santa Cruz, It will be published in the journal Nature.
But, what is the importance of the discovery made thanks to NASA’s Webb Telescope?
The importance of the discovery of carbon dioxide in WASP-39 b
Understanding the composition of a planet’s atmosphere is important, because it tells us something about its origin and evolution, according to the US aerospace agency.
Batalha explains that “detecting such a clear signal of carbon dioxide in WASP-39 b bodes well for the detection of atmospheres on smaller, Earth-sized planets.”
carbon dioxide (CO2) It is a colorless and odorless gas, made up of oxygen and carbon. In excess, it is one of the main causes of global warming on our planet, but in acceptable amounts it is key to its sustainability.
This gas is produced in certain natural processes, including respiration and fermentation, and plants absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. But they are also emitted by vehicle engines and large plants, affecting the Earth.
In the case of WASP-39 b, a small hill between 4.1 and 4.6 microns presented the first clear and detailed evidence of carbon dioxide ever detected on a planet outside the Solar System, according to the NASA statement.
NASA’s James Webb Telescope Will Continue to Evaluate More Planets’ Atmospheres
“Carbon dioxide molecules are sensitive tracers of planet formation history,” says Mike Line of Arizona State University, another member of the research team.
“By measuring this characteristic of carbon dioxide, we can determine how much solid material versus how much gaseous material was used to form this gas giant planet.”
Line notes that over the next decade, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will make this measurement for more planets, “providing insight into the details of how these are formed and the singularity of our own Solar System”.