Webb’s latest data gives us the first molecular and chemical profile of a distant world, gas giant WASP-39 b. This bodes well for its ability to probe the atmospheres of small, rocky planets like in the TRAPPIST-1 system.
We learn about exoplanet atmospheres by breaking their light into components and creating spectra. Think of a spectrum as a barcode. Elements and molecules have characteristic signatures in that “barcode” we can read.
WASP-39 b is an old friend! In August, Webb showed the first clear evidence of carbon dioxide in a planet outside our solar system. New data from the same planet also shows water, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, sodium and potassium.
What else does the data tell us? First detection of sulfur dioxide in an exoplanet atmosphere
Concrete evidence of photochemistry (fundamental for life on Earth)
Its clouds may be broken up, not one uniform blanket
Clues to how the planet formed
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