First direct image of CO2 outside our solar system captured by Webb

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken direct images of multiple gas giants in the HR 8799 system. This young planetary system, located 130 light-years away, has been a focal point for planet formation studies.

The observations indicate that the planets in HR 8799 are rich in carbon dioxide. This suggests they formed in a similar way to Jupiter and Saturn.

Scientists believe they slowly built solid cores that attracted surrounding gas by means of gravitational force, a process called core accretion.

Atmospheres of gas giants

Webb‘s ability to analyze exoplanet atmospheres using spectroscopy has further confirmed these observations.

The Telescope’s spectroscopic instruments help to identify atmospheric components in great detail.

This means that scientists can now infer the chemical makeup of distant worlds using imaging.

“By spotting these strong carbon dioxide features, we have shown there is a sizable fraction of heavier elements, like carbon, oxygen, and iron, in these planets’ atmospheres,” said William Balmer, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

“Given what we know about the star they orbit, that likely indicates they formed via core accretion, which is an exciting conclusion for planets that we can directly see.”

Gas giants in HR 8799

HR 8799 is about 30 million years old – extremely young compared to our solar system’s 4.6 billion years. Its planets still radiate heat from their formation, emitting strong infrared signals.

These signals allow researchers to gather important data on how such planets form.

Gas giants can emerge in two main ways. One involves forming a solid core that then gathers surrounding gas, similar to the way in which Jupiter and Saturn are thought to have formed.

The other occurs when gas particles rapidly collapse into a massive object from a young star’s cooling disk. Understanding which process is more common helps scientists differentiate planetary systems.

“Our hope, with this kind of research, is to understand our own solar system, life, and ourselves in the comparison to other exoplanetary systems, so we can contextualize our existence,” Balmer explained.

“We want to take pictures of other solar systems and see how they’re similar or different when compared to ours. From there, we can try to get a sense of how weird our solar system really is – or how normal.”

Cutting-edge imaging technology

Out of nearly 6,000 known exoplanets, very few have been imaged directly.

This is because even large planets appear thousands of times fainter than their host stars. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) coronagraph made these new images possible by blocking starlight to the reveal hidden worlds.

This technology helped researchers detect infrared signals from HR 8799’s planets at wavelengths absorbed by specific gases.

Their findings show that these planets contain more heavy elements than previously thought.

HR 8799 plants and brown dwarfs

Scientists are now working to determine whether objects seen around distant stars are true gas giants or whether they are brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs form like stars but lack the mass needed for nuclear fusion to occur.

“We have other lines of evidence that hint at these four HR 8799 planets forming using this bottom-up approach,” said Laurent Pueyo, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, who co-led the research.

“How common is this for planets we can directly image? We don’t know yet, but we’re proposing more Webb observations to answer that question.”

Hard work pays off

“We knew Webb could measure colors of the outer planets in directly imaged systems,” added Rémi Soummer, director of STScI’s Russell B. Makidon Optics Lab and former lead for Webb coronagraph operations.

“We have been waiting for 10 years to confirm that our finely tuned operations of the telescope would also allow us to access the inner planets. Now the results are in and we can do interesting science with it.”

Webb’s NIRCam observations of HR 8799 and another system, 51 Eridani, were conducted under NASA’s Guaranteed Time Observations programs.

What happens next?

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s leading space science observatory and is operated as an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency.

It will continue to uncover the mysteries of our solar system and study gas giants and other distant exoplanets.

By looking deeper into the cosmos, the JWST helps scientists understand the origins of the universe and humanity’s place in it.

Information in this article comes from a NASA press release.

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