The world’s most powerful telescope, the James Webb SpaceTelescope, has captured its first direct images of carbon dioxide gas outside the solar system. It observed it in HR 8799, a multiplanet system 130 light-years away from the Earth. This finding presents strong proof that giant planets in the HR 8799 formed through the core accretion, like Jupiter and Saturn. It also proves that the well-studied planets of the HR 8799 are rich in carbon dioxide gas.
Additionally, it confirms that the Web can infer the chemistry of the exoplanet atmosphere through imaging. This method complements Webb’s powerful spectroscopic instruments that can solve the atmospheric composition.
William Balmer, a Johns Hopkins University astrophysicist, who led the task, said there is a sizable fraction of heavier elements like carbon, oxygen, and inro, in these planets’ atmospheres. As of now, we know the star they orbit, which likely indicates they formed through core accretion for planets that we can see in an exciting conclusion.
As per the shared information, the HR 8799 is a young system; it is around 30 million years old,a fraction of the solar system’s 4.6 billion years. Still hot from their tumultuous formation, the planets within HR 8799 emit large amounts of infrared light that give scientists valuable data on how they formed.
There are two ways giant planets can take shapes: by slowly building solid cores that attract gas like our solar system or by collapsing from a young star’s cooling disk into mastiff objects.
Understanding the more common model helps scientists get clues to differentiate between the types of planets they find in other systems.
With such research, the experts hope to understand the solar system, life, and themselves in comparison to other exoplanetary systems, so we can contextualize our existence.
William and his team hope to use Webb’s coronagraphs to analyze more giant planets and compare their composition to theoretical models.