The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted signs of chemical reactions driven by star light in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, raising hopes that it will one day be able to identify signs of life on another world
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Robert Hurt; Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian/Melissa Weiss has spotted chemical reactions driven by starlight taking place in the atmosphere of a distant alien world for the first time, raising hopes that the telescope could help identify exoplanets that host life.
The team divided into subgroups and used a range of atmospheric models to mimic the signal from JWST. Only models that included chemical reactions involving sulphur could reproduce the data, suggesting the bump was caused by atmospheric sulphur dioxide, says team memberat the University of Exeter, UK. “We were very surprised because as soon as we each independently implemented the sulphur chemistry, it fit right away.
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