{"id":22489,"date":"2022-11-22T16:00:57","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T16:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=22489"},"modified":"2022-11-22T16:00:57","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T16:00:57","slug":"nasas-jwst-reveals-an-exoplanet-atmosphere-as-never-seen-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/science-mct\/nasas-jwst-reveals-an-exoplanet-atmosphere-as-never-seen-before\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s JWST reveals an exoplanet atmosphere as never seen before"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nasa\u2019s JWST just scored another first: a molecular and chemical profile of a distant world\u2019s skies secured by research from experts including Dr Joanna Barstow<\/a> and Agnibha Banerjee<\/a> from The Open University.<\/span><\/p>\n

While JWST and other space telescopes previously have revealed isolated ingredients of the planet WASP-39b\u2019s atmosphere, the new readings provide a full menu of atoms, molecules, and even signs of active chemistry and clouds.<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest data also gives a hint of how these clouds might look up close: broken up rather than a single, uniform blanket over the planet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Joanna Barstow, Ernest Rutherford Research Fellow at the OU, is a member of the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science team. She commented on the findings:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

\u2018It is fantastic to have such an insight into the composition of this planet\u2019s atmosphere.\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u2018These first observations are already teaching us new things about the chemical processes that shape these planets.\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

WASP-39 b, also known as a \u201chot Saturn\u201d (a planet about as massive as Saturn but in an orbit tighter than Mercury) is orbiting a star some 700 light-years away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The suite of discoveries is detailed in a set of five new scientific papers, three of which are in press and two of which are under review. <\/span><\/p>\n

Among the unprecedented revelations is the first detection in an exoplanet\u00a0 atmosphere of sulphur dioxide (SO2<\/sub>), a molecule produced from chemical reactions triggered by high-energy light from the planet\u2019s parent star. On Earth, the protective ozone layer in the upper atmosphere is created in a similar way.<\/span><\/p>\n

The research has also resulted in improvements in modelling that will help build the technological know-how to interpret potential signs of planet habitability in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having such a complete list of chemical ingredients in an exoplanet atmosphere also gives scientists a glimpse of the abundance of different elements in relation to each other, such as carbon-to-oxygen or potassium-to-oxygen ratios. That, in turn, provides insight into how this planet \u2013 and perhaps others \u2013 formed out of the disk of gas and dust surrounding the parent star in its younger years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

WASP-39 b\u2019s chemical inventory suggests a history of mergers of smaller bodies called planetesimals to create an eventual goliath of a planet.<\/span><\/p>\n

In so precisely analysing an exoplanet atmosphere, the telescope\u2019s instruments performed well beyond scientists\u2019 expectations \u2013 and promise a new phase of exploration among the broad variety of exoplanets in the galaxy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Barstow added: <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

\u2018The combination of precision, wavelength coverage and spectral resolution that JWST provides has completely transformed our ability to study these distant worlds.\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nasa\u2019s JWST just scored another first: a molecular and chemical profile of a distant world\u2019s skies secured by research from experts including Dr Joanna Barstow and Agnibha Banerjee from The Open University. While JWST and other space telescopes previously have revealed isolated ingredients of the planet WASP-39b\u2019s atmosphere, the new readings provide a full menu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":22498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[861,1525,1640],"class_list":["post-22489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-mct","tag-faculty-of-stem","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}