The James Webb Telescope detects carbon dioxide for first time outside solar system.
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| WASP-39 b is a hot gas giant with a mass roughly one-quarter that of Jupiter. (Photo: Nasa) |
A planet named WASP-39b which is located 700 light years away from the earth has contained the composition of carbon dioxide. It is a hot gas gaint,One-quarter of mass of Jupiter and 1.3 times greater diameter than Jupiter ( same as saturn).
NIRSpec observation
The telescope which is 15,00,000 km away from earth has used the Near Infrared Sepctograph for detection of gases. The resulting spectrum detects small hills between 4.1 and 4.6 microns, which is the clear evidence for detection of carbon dioxide in exoplanet for first time.There was no such observation, which gave the spectrum in range between 3.1 to 5.5 micron.
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| A series of light curves from Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) shows the change in brightness of three different wavelengths (colors) of light from the WASP-39 star system over time as the planet transited the star July 10, 2022.(source: NASA) |
"As soon as the data appeared on my screen, the whopping carbon dioxide feature grabbed me,” said Zafar Rustamkulov, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University and member of the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science team, which undertook this investigation. “It was a special moment, crossing an important threshold in exoplanet sciences.”
The planet Wasp-39b
It was discovered in 2011.It has a high temperature ranging upto 900 degree celsius. The orbits are very small around its star about one- eighth distance between mercury and sun. It takes only four earth days to complete the orbit.
when the brightness of the star periodically dims due to the presence of a planet around it. During the transit, some of the starlight is eclipsed by the planet completely (causing the overall dimming) and some is transmitted through the planet’s atmosphere.
Previously Hubble telescope revealed the presence of water vapour, sodium, Pottasium in the planet. Now Webb conformed the presence of carbon dioxide. So the planet gives new data for understanding the composition and formation of exoplanet.