[표지로 읽는 과학] A Brave New World Shown by James Webb: Dong-A Science

The international academic journal ‘Nature’ featured the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, James Webb) on the cover this week. James Webb, which was developed by the United States, Europe and Canada over 20 years at a cost of more than 10 billion dollars (approximately 13.55 trillion won), has made headlines around the world with amazing new images of the universe in a short time since its launch in December 2021. In the photos that have been released so far, there are wonderful images of the universe, such as ‘Cradle of Stars’ and ‘Dance of Galaxies’.

The James Webb Telescope is the largest of the existing optical space telescopes and is particularly specialized in infrared observations. Infrared light has a longer wavelength than visible light that our eyes can detect. The Hubble Space Telescope can observe more distant stars deep in space. This is because starlight coming from farther away from the Earth turns into infrared rays with longer wavelengths.

Julia Seidel, a researcher at the European Southern Observatory, published an article in Nature that introduced five research papers on the exoplanet ‘WASP-39b’, which was 700 light-years away from Earth, which James Webb had revealed. “James Webb’s unprecedented glimpse of a distant planet provides clues to how the planet formed,” he said.

In the introduced study, scientists investigated the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-39b using the near-infrared camera and near-infrared spectrometer mounted on James Webb. They found properties of water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sodium and potassium, and analyzed the properties of clouds and found evidence of sulfur dioxide. This provides important information about the formation of planets, the basic composition of their atmospheres, and whether or not life exists.

“The exceptional quality of the data provided by James Webb will help advance our understanding of the early universe, galaxies and star formation, and help us search for life,” said Seidel. There is no doubt that it will advance research in the field,” he added.