NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has for the very first time discovered clear evidence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet located outside the solar system. More specifically, a gas giant planet that orbits Sun-like star 700 light-years from Earth. In the future, JWST may be capable to detecting and measuring carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets.
Officially known as WASP-39 b, this extremely hot gas giant has a mass is nearly equal to Saturn and a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter and orbits very close to its star, completing one circuit in a little over four Earth-days. We can’t wait until JWST provides us with a closer look at carbon-rich exoplanets made of diamonds.
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As soon as the data appeared on my screen, the whopping carbon dioxide feature grabbed me. It was a special moment, crossing an important threshold in exoplanet sciences,” said Zafar Rustamkulov, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University and member of the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science team.
