WASP-39b, an exoplanet treasure located about 700 light-years distant, is becoming quite popular.
WASP-39b, which was first reported in the earlier part of this year, was the focus of the first-ever detectionCarbon dioxide found in the atmosphere of a planet other than the Solar System.
A detailed analysis of data from James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST), has now provided an amazing wealth of information. This is the best look yet at an exoplanet atmospheric.
These results include information on WASP-39b’s clouds and the first-ever direct detections of photochemistry in an atmosphere of an exoplanet. A nearly complete inventory of the atmosphere’s chemical contents reveals intriguing hints about the planet’s formation history.
These incredible discoveries were published in five papers Nature, and open the door to the eventual detection of chemical signatures of biological life outside of the Solar System.
“These early observations are a sign of the amazing science that lies ahead with JWST,” says astrophysicist Laura KreidbergMax Planck Institute for Astronomy Germany director.
“We put the telescope through its paces to test the performance, and it was nearly flawless – even better than we hoped.”
Since the discovery of the first exoplanets in the early 1990s we have been trying to learn more about the worlds orbiting other stars.
However, the challenges were not easy. Exoplanets are often very small and distant. We haven’t seen many of them. We know they exist only by their effect on host stars.
The transit is when an exoplanet passes between the star and us. This is known as one of these effects. The starlight becomes slightly dimmed as a result. Periodic dimming events indicate the existence of an orbiting body. Based on the gravitational and dimming effects on the star, we can determine how large this orbiting body is.
Based on transit data, there is another thing we can tell. It changes as starlight passes through the atmosphere on the transiting exoplanet. Some wavelengths are dimmed and others brightened depending upon how the molecules absorb or re-emit light.
Although the signal is weak, a telescope powerful enough to see it clearly and a stack transits can decode the spectrum’s changing emission and absorption features. This will allow you to determine the atmosphere of an exoplanet.
JWST is the largest space telescope ever launched. Three of the four instruments provided detailed infrared images from WASP39. Scientists began to analyze these colorful codes.
A census of all molecules found in WASP-39b’s atmospheric was the first thing. Aside from the above, carbon dioxideThe researchers found water vapor, sodium and carbon monoxide. The detection of methane was not made, suggesting that WASP39b’s metallicity may be higher than Earth’s.
It is also interesting to see the abundance of these elements. The ratio of carbon and oxygen is particularly telling. This suggests that the exoplanet was formed far from its host star, which would have meant it would be in a four-day orbit. And modeling and observation data suggest that the exoplanet’s sky is populated by broken clouds – not of water, but of silicates and sulfites.
Finally, observations revealed the presence a compound called sulfur dioxide. Here, in the Solar System on rocky planets such as VenusJovian moon IoSulfur dioxide is a result of volcanic activity. However, sulfur dioxide on gas worlds has a different origin story. It is formed when hydrogen sulfide undergoes light to be broken down into its constituent parts and then the resulting sulfur is oxygenated.
Photon-induced chemical reactions can be described as photochemistryThey have implications for the stability of the atmosphere and habitability as well as the formation of aerosols.
WASP-39b is, for all intents and purposes, not likely to become habitable for human life. But, the detection of photochemistry can have implications for atmospheric studies on other worlds as well as understanding the evolution WASP-39b.
For the JWST-related insights into atmospheres, planetary scientists have been working hard for many years. The space telescope seems to be living up to its promises, as it has completed the first detailed analysis of the atmospheres on exoplanets.
Additionally, these teams are creating documentation to allow other scientists to use their methods for future JWST exoplanet observations.
We may not detect the signatures of life in an exoplanet atmosphere with JWST – perhaps an even more powerful telescope will be required to deliver that level of fine detail – but with the analysis of WASP-39b, that discovery is feeling ever more tantalizingly within grasp.
“Data like these,” Natalie Batalha is an AstronomerUniversity of California Santa Cruz “are a game-changer.”
The results will be published Nature These can be accessed in preprints Here, Here, Here, Here?, and Here.
