Scientists make unprecedented detection on a planet 700 light-years away - msnNOW

Nov 25, 2022

Previously, scientists used specialized instruments aboard Webb to detect the gas carbon dioxide on this extreme world.

This starlight passes through the exoplanet's atmosphere, then through space, and ultimately into instruments called spectrographs aboard Webb (a strategy called "transit spectroscopy").

"Each molecule has a specific diet," explained Néstor Espinoza, an exoplanet researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which runs the James Webb Space Telescope.

The particularly enticing detection on WASP-39 b is sulphur dioxide, which is made when a star's light hits a planet's atmosphere.

Now, astronomers know they can use Webb to seek out dynamic atmospheres on other far-off worlds in space?