NASA’s James Webb reveals an Exoplanet Atmosphere as Never Seen Before

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, JWST, reveals an Exoplanet Atmosphere as never seen before and it has also spotted chemical reactions in an exoplanet's atmosphere.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals the atmospheric composition of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-39 b.

The telescope’s array of highly sensitive instruments was trained on the atmosphere of WASP-39 b, a “hot Saturn” orbiting a star some 700 light-years away. 

What is WASP-39 b Exoplanet "WASP-39 b", also called a "hot Saturn," is a planet about as massive as Saturn but in an orbit tighter than Mercury.

While Webb previously revealed isolated ingredients of this planet’s atmosphere, the latest readings from Webb show a full menu of atoms, molecules, and even signs of active chemistry and clouds.

The latest data also gives a hint of how these clouds might look up close: broken up rather than a single, uniform blanket over the planet.

The results indicate well for Webb’s instruments' capacity to conduct the wide range of investigations of all types of exoplanets, and planets around other stars, that the science community has hoped for.

That includes investigating the atmospheres of smaller, rocky planets like those in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

Among the unprecedented revelations is the detection of "Sulfur dioxide (SO2)" for the first time in an exoplanet's atmosphere. 

Image - Data from NIRISS shows fingerprints of potassium (K), water (H2O), and carbon monoxide (CO)

This molecule is produced from chemical reactions started by high-energy light from the planet's parent star.  On Earth, a similar process creates the protective ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. 

Other atmospheric constituents detected by the Webb telescope include sodium (Na), potassium (K), and water vapor (H2O), confirming previous telescope observations.

Image - NIRSpec data reveals all of these molecules as well as sodium (Na).

Webb also detected carbon dioxide (CO2) at a higher resolution, providing twice as much data as previously recorded.

Image - Data from NIRSpec indicates water, sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and carbon monoxide (CO)

However, carbon monoxide (CO) was detected, but the Webb data had no clear indications of methane (CH4) or hydrogen sulfide (H2S). If present, these molecules occur at very low levels.

Image - Data from NIRCam shows a prominent water signature

A researcher at Oxford University, Shang-Min Tsai said, “This is the first time we see concrete evidence of photochemistry – chemical reactions initiated by energetic stellar light – on exoplanets.”

After this, scientists applied computer models of photochemistry to data that requires such physics to be fully explained. 

Having such a complete roster of chemical ingredients in an exoplanet atmosphere also gives scientists a glimpse of the abundance of different elements in relation to each other, such as carbon-to-oxygen or potassium-to-oxygen ratios.

It gives insight into how this planet, and maybe others, formed out of the disk of gas and dust surrounding the parent star in its younger years.

WASP-39 b’s chemical inventory suggests a history of smashups and mergers of smaller bodies called planetesimals to create an eventual goliath of a planet.

The data also indicates that oxygen is a lot more abundant than carbon in the atmosphere.  This potentially indicates that WASP-39 b originally formed far away from the central star.

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