NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured stunning images of multiple gas giant planets in an iconic planetary system. The telescope has imaged HR 8799, a young system located 130 light-years away from Earth. This discovery provides strong evidence that the four giant planets in this system formed through core accretion, similar to Jupiter and Saturn.
The observations indicate that the planets are rich in carbon dioxide gas, which suggests that they have a solid core and a protoplanetary disk. The results also confirm that Webb can infer the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres through imaging. This technique complements Webb’s powerful spectroscopic instruments, which can resolve atmospheric composition.
Lead author William Balmer from Johns Hopkins University said, “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.” The team’s analysis also includes Webb’s observation of a system 97 light-years away called 51 Eridani.
The four planets in HR 8799 emit large amounts of infrared light, which provides valuable data on how they formed. Giant planets can form through two processes: core accretion and disk instability. Knowing which process is more common can help scientists understand the types of planets found in other systems.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory, designed to solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe. The telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) coronagraph allowed the team to reveal otherwise hidden worlds.
The discovery of directly imaged planets provides a unique opportunity for scientists to study exoplanetary systems and their place in the universe. As lead astronomer Laurent Pueyo said, “We have other lines of evidence that hint at these four HR 8799 planets forming using this bottom-up approach.” The team plans to conduct more observations to determine whether objects they see orbiting other stars are truly giant planets or objects like brown dwarfs.
This groundbreaking research paves the way for more detailed observations and a better understanding of our own solar system, life, and ourselves in comparison to other exoplanetary systems.
Source: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-images-young-giant-exoplanets-detects-carbon-dioxide