James Webb makes first ever detection of carbon dioxide in an exoplanet's atmosphere

NASA's James Webb telescope has detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system for the first time. Discovery: NASA's James Webb telescope has detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system for the first time. This illustration shows what exoplanet WASP-39 b could look like A transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-39 b captured by Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph revealed the first clear evidence for carbon dioxide in a planet outside the solar system HOW SCIENTISTS STUDY THE ATMOSPHERE'S OF DISTANT EXOPLANETS Distant stars and their orbiting planets often have conditions unlike anything we see in our atmosphere. In the resulting spectrum of the exoplanet's atmosphere, a small hill between 4.1 and 4.6 microns presents the first clear, detailed evidence for carbon dioxide ever detected in a planet outside the solar system. The discovery is important because it suggests the $10 billion observatory may be able to detect and measure the gas in the thinner atmospheres of smaller, rocky planets that could host life A series of light curves from Webb's NIRSpec shows the change in brightness of three different wavelengths, or colours of light from the WASP-39 star system over time as the planet transited the star in July Webb's infrared capabilities allow it to 'see back in time' to the Big Bang, which happened 13.8 billion years ago.