WASP-39b isn’t just a fiery exoplanet, its skies contain chemicals that life hates. After discovering that WASP-39b’s atmosphere contained carbon dioxide, Webb Space Telescope now provides an “inventory” of WASP-39b’s atmospheric components, identifying sulfur dioxide that can only be explained by photochemical reactions.
Astrophysicists are no strangers to the exoplanet WASP-39b (aka Bocaprins), about 700 light-years from Earth, a gas giant about the mass of Saturn and the size of Jupiter, but orbiting its parent The star orbits within It’s about the same distance as Mercury is from the Sun, making WASP-39b extremely hot.
In August of this year, the Webb Space Telescope for the first time clearly captured definitive evidence of the presence of carbon dioxide in WASP-39b’s atmosphere; now, the Webb telescope has further identified WASP-39b’s list of more molecules and compounds, including water, carbon monoxide, sodium, potassium, and mysterious molecular sulfur dioxide, etc., which is produced similarly to the the earth’s ozone layer; no evident traces of methane and hydrogen sulphide were found.
Furthermore, the data suggest that these chemicals may be dispersed in clouds rather than in a single uniform distribution in the atmosphere.
Listing such a comprehensive list of chemical components in an exoplanet’s atmosphere, in turn, allows scientists to better understand how the planet formed. For example, after comparing the relative abundance of atmospheric chemicals, it was discovered that WASP-39b is much richer in oxygen than carbon. Therefore, the study researchers believe that WASP-39b may have accumulated over time from planetesimals far from the central star.
(Source of the first image:University of Chicago）
