The James Webb Space Telescope has directly observed the key chemical of carbon dioxide in planets outside of our solar system for the first time, scientists announced Monday.
The James Webb Space Telescope has directly observed the key chemical of carbon dioxide in planets outside of our solar system for the first time, scientists announced Monday.
The gas giants are not capable of hosting extraterrestrial life, but do offer clues in a lingering mystery about how distant planets form, according to a study in The Astrophysical Journal.
The HR 8799 system, 130 light years from Earth, is only 30 million years old—just a baby compared to our solar system’s 4.6 billion years.
A U.S.-led team of researchers used Webb to directly detect carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of all four of the system’s known planets, according to the study.
They used Webb’s coronagraph instruments, which block the light from bright stars to get a better view of the planets revolving around them.
„It’s like putting your thumb up in front of the sun when you’re looking up at the sky“, lead study author William Balmer, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University, told AFP.
