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?