Webb's brightness measurements are equivalent to noticing four out of 10,000 tiny light bulbs have gone out.
"We want to know if rocky planets have atmospheres or not," Sebastian Zieba, a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and first author of the study explained in the NASA post. "In the past, we could only really study planets with thick, hydrogen-rich atmospheres. With Webb, we can finally start to search for atmospheres dominated by oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide.
They measured the brightness of the star by itself when the planet was behind the star and the brightness when the planet was beside the star — allowing them to analyze light from the star and planet combined. By comparing these two measurements, they were able to determine the mid-infrared light coming from the dayside of the planet totaled 15 microns.
According to NASA, the decrease in brightness detected by Webb as the planet moved behind the star was 0.04 percent. This is equivalent to looking at 10,000 tiny light bulbs and noticing that only four have gone out. With such impressive capabilities, Webb will help us unearth the mysteries of
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