The planet, named WASP-39 b discovered in 2011, is a hot gaseous 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
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A promising discovery. The James Webb Space Telescope has for the first time detected the presence of CO2 in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, that is to say a planet outside our solar system, NASA announced on Thursday August 25.
The planet, named WASP-39 b, discovered in 2011, is a hot gaseous 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 harbor 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 of our solar system! WASP-39 B is a gas giant closely orbiting 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 a door that opens for future studies of super-Earths, even of Earths”said Thursday Pierre-Olivier Lagage, astrophysicist at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and one of the many co-authors of this work, to be published in the scientific journal Nature.
The detection of CO2 will also make it possible to learn more about the formation of this planet, said NASA. Located 700 light-years away, it is about a quarter of the mass of Jupiter, and is very close to its sun. The Hubble and Spitzer telescopes had already detected water vapor, sodium and potassium in the atmosphere of this planet, but James Webb was able to go further thanks to his extraordinary sensitivity in the infrared.
In the NASA statement, Zafar Rustamkulov of Johns Hopkins University recounted his feelings when the presence of CO2 became clear: “It was a special moment, a milestone in the science of exoplanets.”