The James Webb Telescope detects carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time

A promising discovery. The James Webb Space Telescope has detected for the first time the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, that is, a planet outside our solar system, NASA announced Thursday, August 25.

planet, Named WASP-39 b, discovered in 2011, it is a hot gas giant. The Life as we know it would be impossible there, but this discovery supports the idea that such observations can also be made on rocky planets. With the ultimate goal of determining whether any of them provide favorable conditions for life.

Catch Your Breath – Webb has captured the first clear evidence of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system! WASP-39 B is a gas giant that orbits closely around a Sun-like star 700 light-years away: https://t.co/FenLqV6HSo pic.twitter.com/abJvqxfLdG

—NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) August 25 2022

“For me, this is the door that opens to future studies of the super-Earth, and even of the Earth”said on Thursday Pierre-Olivier Legge, an astrophysicist at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and one of the many co-authors of this work, which will be published in the scientific journal temper nature.

The discovery of carbon dioxide will also enable us to learn more about the formation of this planet, NASA said. Located 700 light-years away, it is about a quarter of the mass of Jupiter, and is very close to the Sun. The Hubble and Spitzer telescopes have already detected water vapor, sodium and potassium in the atmosphere of this planet, but James Webb was able to move forward thanks to his unusual sensitivity to infrared radiation.

In a NASA statement, Johns Hopkins University’s Zafar Rustamkulov recounted his feelings when the presence of carbon dioxide became apparent: “It was a special moment, a milestone in exoplanet science.”