First confirmed trace of carbon dioxide found outside our solar sytem

Render of JWST fully deployed. Image courtesy of NASA.

 NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has found the first ever clear traces of carbon dioxide (CO2) in a planet's atmosphere outside of our solar system on the exoplanet WASP-39 b, a gas giant exoplanet roughly 700 light years away from our solar system.

The data was captured via JWST's onboard Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument which analyzes the various wavelengths of light that hit it. When JWST was aimed at WASP-39 b, it revealed that the amount of light blocked by the atmosphere was indicative of the presence of CO2 gas as it absorbs light of a certain wavelength.

Graph courtesy of NASA

“Detecting such a clear signal of carbon dioxide on WASP-39 b bodes well for the detection of atmospheres on smaller, terrestrial-sized planets," JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science team leader and UC Santa Cruz student Natalie Batalha says.

The JWST's current location and more can be tracked via NASA's "Where is Webb?" page.