JWST Detects Signs of Active Chemistry and Clouds in the Atmosphere of Exoplanet WASP-39 b - by spacewriter
The next step was to do a coordinated analysis of all the NIRSpec data. The results released this week give a much clearer and richer understanding of the planet’s thick atmosphere.WASP-39b is not exactly an Earth-like planet. Instead, it’s a gas giant world with a mass about the same as Saturn’s. It lies closer from its G-type star than Mercury does to our Sun, and orbits once every four Earth days. The planet turns out to be quite a puffy world, largely because it’s hot .
on July 10, 2022, reveals the first clear evidence for carbon dioxide in a planet outside the solar system. This is also the first detailed exoplanet transmission spectrum ever captured that covers wavelengths between 3 and 5.5 microns. JWST tracked the planet as it passed in front of its star. Starlight filtered through the atmosphere and different gases there absorbed different colors of the starlight spectrum. This is how NIRSpec detected water, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, sodium, and potassium at WASP-39 b. It also provided data about COat a very high resolution.
“The abundance of sulfur [relative to] hydrogen indicated that the planet presumably experienced significant accretion of planetesimals that can deliver [these ingredients] to the atmosphere,” said Kazumasa Ohno, a UC Santa Cruz exoplanet researcher who worked on NIRSpec measurements. “The data also indicate that the oxygen is a lot more abundant than the carbon in the atmosphere. This potentially indicates that WASP-39 b originally formed far away from the central star.
The precision with which NIRSpec could detect so many atmospheric signatures bodes well for future exoplanet studies. This is particularly true as astronomers hunt for planets where life might exist. Their atmospheres will contain chemical clues that point to that life. “We are going to be able to see the big picture of exoplanet atmospheres,” said Laura Flagg, a researcher at Cornell University and a member of the international team.
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