Credit: Science: Luis Welbanks (ASU), JWST MANATEE Team; Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

This transmission spectrum, captured using NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, shows the amounts of different wavelengths (colors) of starlight blocked by the atmosphere of the gas-giant exoplanet WASP-107 b.

The spectrum includes light collected over five separate observations using a total of three different instruments: Hubble’s WFC3 (0.8–1.6 microns), Webb’s NIRCam (2.4–4.0 microns and 3.9–5.0 microns), and Webb’s MIRI (5–12 microns). Each set of measurements was made by observing the planet-star system for about 10 hours before, during, and after the transit as the planet moved across the face of the star.

By comparing the brightness of light filtered through the planet’s atmosphere (transmitted light) to unfiltered starlight, it is possible to calculate the amount of each wavelength that is blocked by the atmosphere. Since each molecule absorbs a unique combination of wavelengths, the transmission spectrum can be used to constrain the abundance of various gases.

This spectrum shows clear evidence for water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and ammonia (NH3) in the planet’s atmosphere, allowing researchers to estimate the interior temperature and mass of the core.

This wavelength coverage from optical to mid-infrared is the broadest of any exoplanet transmission spectrum to date, and includes the first reported space telescope detection of ammonia in an exoplanet atmosphere.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-113

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

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