First Carbon Dioxide Detection in Exoplanet Atmosphere

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Video imagery:

·       Illustration showing WASP-39 b: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

·       Infographic showing carbon dioxide detection: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

Writer: Leah Ramsay

Designer: Leah Hustak, Joseph Olmsted

Science review: Dr. Emma Marcucci

Education review: Jim Manning

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Objects and gases of various colors in outer space. Text, News from the Universe

 

August 29, 2022. First Carbon Dioxide Detection In Exoplanet Atmosphere. Illustration

 

WASP-39b is a puffy gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away.

 

Hot Gas Giant Exoplanet WASP-39B. Atmosphere Composition. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected carbon dioxide in the planet's atmosphere. A graph indicates Amount of Light Blocked and Wavelength of Light.

 

This marks the first clear, detailed evidence for carbon dioxide ever detected in a planet outside the Solar System.

 

This landmark detection is hopeful evidence that Webb could measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller, rocky planets in the future.

 

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This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD