The researchers determined in their study that researchers' current best opacity model, which they use to suss out how photons pass through a given material, "is not up to par with the precision and quality of data we have from the James Webb telescope," MIT planetary science graduate student Prajwal Niraula said in a university press release.
MIT assistant professor and study co-leader Julien de Wit explained the telescope's discrepancies by noting that "there is a scientifically significant difference between a compound like water being present at 5 percent versus 25 percent, which current models cannot differentiate.".
As de Wit notes, the model that scientists are currently using on Webb data, which he describes as "Rosetta Stone" language translation and which is also used on data from the Hubble Space Telescope, is "doing OK." To more accurately decrypt important data like the makeup of planets' atmospheres, however, there need to be some serious updates.