The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed that a distant exoplanet could be covered in clouds and contain active chemicals. WASP-39b, also known as Bocaprins, orbits a slightly smaller star in the constellation Virgo, about 700 light-years away in the Milky Way galaxy.
Boca Princes, one of the so-called “hot Saturns” (hot Saturn-like planets), will be launched in the summer of 2022, shortly after the JWST begins science observations.InvestigationBut now that the complete chemical profile of the planet has been revealed, some peculiar facts have been discovered.
By breaking down the planet’s faint light into spectra, researchers can see signs of the presence of atoms, molecules and chemicals such as water, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, sodium and potassium. The planet is believed to have a dull orange-blue atmosphere with a band of clouds underneath.
Both the Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes have previously discovered inclusions in this planet’s atmosphere. However, the “full menu” is the first time. The data also suggests that the planet’s clouds may not be “uniformly covered,” but rather divided.
This is great news for the scientific community, eager to explore smaller, rockier, more Earth-like planets like those in the Trappist-1 system.
Atmospheric composition of WASP-39b. Top left: Fingerprints of potassium (K), water (H2O), and carbon monoxide (CO) from NIRISS data. Top right: Significant traces of water shown by NIRCam data. Bottom left: Water, sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) shown by NIRSpec. Bottom right: Additional NIRSpec data revealed all of the above molecules plus sodium (Na) (NASA, ESA, CSA, J. OLMSTED[STSC]).
‘This is the first time concrete evidence has been found for a photochemical reaction (a chemical reaction driven by the energy of starlight),’ say researchers from the University of Oxford, UK, in a paper explaining the origin of atmospheric sulfur dioxide in WASP-39b Shang Ming Tsai, the lead author of “We believe this is a very promising advance in understanding exoplanet atmospheres for this mission.”
Boca Princes looks like earth, but it is definitely different from earth. Boca Princes is a strange planet. It orbits very close to its parent star and its rotation and revolution are synchronized (like the Earth and the Moon), so it is super hot on one side and super cold on the other. In fact, the planet is 8 times closer to its parent star than Mercury is to the Sun, but its diameter is 1.3 times that of Jupiter.
“Using a combination of instruments, we’re able to observe this exoplanet and take advantage of its broad infrared spectrum and numerous chemical signatures that weren’t possible before JWST. We did that,” says Natalie Batalha, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who participated in and coordinated the latest study. “Data like this is a game changer for the way we think in this field.”
Wishing for clear skies and big eyes.
