James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has significantly advanced our understanding of exoplanets, particularly regarding their atmospheres. In November 2022, JWST made groundbreaking observations of WASP-39 b, revealing a complex atmospheric composition that includes water vapor, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, sodium, and potassium . This marked the first detection of sulfur dioxide in an exoplanet atmosphere and introduced the concept of photochemistry occurring beyond Earth. The findings indicate that the planet's cloud structure is heterogeneous rather than uniform, which challenges previous assumptions about exoplanetary atmospheres.
Sub-Neptunes, smaller than gas giants but larger than Earth, were an unexpected discovery made by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. While these planets are abundant, scientists have struggled to fully understand them because of their gaseous, hazy atmospheres. Before Webb, astronomers could only observe flat-line spectra for these planets—meaning the chemical signatures in their atmospheres were hidden behind haze and clouds.
Webb so that we could meaningfully characterize the atmospheres of these smaller planets,” said Eliza Kempton, principal investigator at the University of Maryland, College Park. “By studying their atmospheres, we’re getting a better understanding of how sub-Neptunes formed and evolved, and part of that is understanding why they don’t exist in our solar system.”
The exoplanet isn't just missing clouds, it's free of the typical hazes that have obscured views of the atmospheres surrounding other planets in its size class. 
Neptune. These worlds are thought to be the most common in the Milky Way, yet scientists know relatively little about them, said Eliza Kempton, principal investigator of the study. That's because their atmospheres have been so hard to study.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
Moreover, in May 2024, JWST provided compelling evidence for an atmosphere surrounding the rocky exoplanet 55 Cancri e . This "super-Earth," nearly double Earth's size, was shown to possibly possess an atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide. The implications of this discovery are profound; it suggests that even extreme environments can sustain atmospheric conditions that may be conducive to habitability. These advancements signify a promising trajectory in exoplanet research and open new avenues for exploring potentially habitable worlds beyond our solar system.
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