using nasa's webb telescope scientists have made a recent discovery that's ushered in a new era
of astro chemistry for the first time outside our solar system astronomers have captured definitive
proof of carbon dioxide on a planet this intriguing result could help scientists better
understand how planets are formed welcome to Factnomenal in today's video we'll be uncovering
the historical discovery of carbon dioxide in a planetary atmosphere outside our solar system
the exoplanet wasp 39b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a g-type star it's often described
as a hot jupiter extrasolar planet which was discovered by the wasp project in february 2011.
this exoplanet is located in the virgo constellation which is approximately 700
light years from earth at the 100th anniversary of the iau the international astronomical union
specifically the name exo worlds campaign which was a part of the program this exoplanet was named
boca prins this new name given to the exoplanet was derived from the beach boca prince in the
ericok national park the exoplanet wasp 39b is a hot gas giant which is quite similar to saturn
its maximal puffiness is partly due to its high temperature which is around 1600 degrees
fahrenheit or 900 degrees celsius compared to cooler more rigid gas giants in our solar system
wasp 39b orbits pretty closely to its star at only about 1 8 the distance from the sun to
mercury and it completes one circuit in a little over four earth days this exoplanet was discovered
due to ground-based detections of the subtle intermittent dimming of light from its host star
as it passes in front of the star earlier observations from other telescopes such as nasa's
hubble and spitzer space telescopes discovered the presence of sodium potassium and water vapor
in the exoplanet's atmosphere this exoplanet is well known for containing a significant amount
of water in its atmosphere as stated in a 2018 study however it's also recently been discovered
to contain carbon dioxide for the first time for any exoplanet thanks to the web space telescope's
unmatched infrared sensitivity regarding this exoplanet size wasp 39b is believed to have
a mass of about 0.28 times the mass of jupiter and a radius of about 1.27 times that of jupiter
the exoplanet is also well known for having an extremely low density compared to wasp-17b
the discovery of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of gas giant exoplanet wasp 39b was made by
a team of planetary scientists including arizona state university associate professor
michael line using the james webb space telescope this team of scientists used the
web space telescope's near-infrared spectrograph or near-spec to observe the exoplanet in different
colors or wavelengths of light as it passed in front of its host star these observations
otherwise known as a transit spectrum allowed the scientists to determine precisely what the
exoplanet's atmosphere is made of when light from a host star shines through an exoplanet's
atmosphere the molecules in the atmosphere tend to absorb some of the light in a range of unique
wavelengths carbon dioxide for example absorbs infrared light and earlier telescopes such as
nasa's hubble and spitzer space telescopes didn't observe this gas molecule in the right range
or with the appropriate method to pick out its signature luckily the webspace telescope observes
infrared light and was able to pick it up the team of over a hundred researchers examined
the web space telescope's observations and ran them through four distinct algorithms
to ensure that the final results were all the same no matter how they were processed
fortunately all four algorithms showed a clear signature of carbon dioxide
as previously mentioned earlier observations from other telescopes had shown the presence of sodium
potassium and water vapor in the exoplanet's atmosphere the discovery of carbon dioxide on this
sexoplanet is the second discovery of elements in the atmosphere of the wasp group of planets
before this the webb space telescope discovered water vapor in the atmosphere of this exoplanet
wasp 39b has three times as much water as saturn does and combined with the water abundance
scientists have inferred the presence of a large quantity of heavier elements in the atmosphere
this also suggests that the exoplanet was bombarded by numerous icy materials which
gathered in its atmosphere a bombardment of this kind would only be possible
if wasp 39b formed farther away from its host star than it is now
thanks to the spectroscopic ability of the webb space telescope to peer into the atmosphere
of other planets scientists would be able to discover the presence of more elements
the discovery of carbon dioxide on this exoplanet demonstrates the long-expected capabilities of the
webb space telescope to observe the atmospheres of planets outside of our solar system and also
reveal their composition and formation histories these results open the door to the opportunity of
learning about what makes up smaller rocky planets that are also thought to have carbon dioxide in
their atmospheres the findings obtained from this discovery have been accepted in nature titled
identification of carbon dioxide in an exoplanet atmosphere which marks the first accepted
publication describing exoplanet observations with the web space telescope the results of
this discovery have a statistical significance of 26 sigma which means that the likelihood
of finding such a signature as a statistical fluke is less than 1 in 10 to the 149th power
this comes as a delight and a shock to the team of scientists involved as nothing like this has ever
been seen before the researchers discovered that wasp 39b has more oxygen and carbon than its host
star which suggests that it didn't form when gas around the star collapsed all at once instead its
rocky core was formed first and then amassed the gas that currently makes up its atmosphere this
is quite similar to how we consider the formation of the planets in our own solar system and with a
more in-depth study of the exoplanet's atmosphere scientists could reveal more details about how
and where it formed the possibility of such a discovery is one of the things that prompts these
scientists to continue their work in the hopes of finding more about this exoplanet's atmosphere
carbon dioxide is a vital component of the atmosphere of many planets in our solar system as
it's found on gas giants like saturn and jupiter as well as rocky planets like venus and mars
for researchers specializing in exoplanets carbon dioxide is quite important both as a gas that
they'll possibly be able to detect on small rocky planets and as a sign of the general
abundance of heavy elements in the atmospheres of giant planets according to the director of the
otherworld's laboratory and professor of astronomy and astrophysics at ucsc jonathan fortney carbon
dioxide is a very sensitive measuring stick the best currently available to scientists for
heavy elements in giant planet atmospheres stars and gas giant planets are primarily made up of
the lightest elements helium and hydrogen still the abundant presence of heavier elements what
scientists call metallicity is a critical factor in planet formation professor jonathan fortney
stated that determining the quantity of heavy elements in a planet is vital to understanding
the planet's formation and scientists would be able to use carbon dioxide as a measuring stick
for other exoplanets to build up a comprehensive understanding of giant planet composition
he also noted that wasp 39b seems to have a similar composition to saturn whose metallicity is
10 times that of the sun this means that wasp 39b also appears to be enriched in heavy elements by
around 10 times relative to the sun the fact that scientists were able to discover carbon dioxide in
this exoplanet's atmosphere is a good sign for the possibility of eventually understanding the
atmospheres of rocky worlds comparable to earth which is one of the major goals of the james webb
space telescope it may also be beneficial in the search for alien life as it may be a fascinating
biosignature when seen in combination with other molecules like methane a member of the research
team from the university of maryland eliza kempton also said this planet is not a hospitable place
it's like what you would get if you took jupiter but moved it really close to the sun and baked
it it's not a place you would ever want to visit but this is the first step towards characterizing
the atmospheres of habitable planets that said it's important to characterize these
atmospheres as it's possibly our best chance at finding signs of extraterrestrial life
aside from carbon dioxide the team of scientists also found
another bump in their data signifying that something unusual in wasp 39b's atmosphere
was absorbing some of the starlight the scientists aren't sure what this
mystery molecule may be but they are working towards figuring it out with additional data
from the web space telescope and that's a wrap on this video thank you for watching fact nominal