Carbon dioxide detected around alien world for first time

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https://www.science.org/content/article/carbon-dioxide-detected-around-alien-world-first-time

By Daniel Clery, Science Magazine. 

Excerpt: Astronomers have found carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere of a Saturn-size planet 700 light-years away—the first unambiguous detection of the gas in a planet beyond the Solar System. The discovery, made by the James Webb Space Telescope, provides clues to how the planet formed. The result also shows just how quickly Webb may identify a spate of other gases, such as methane and ammonia, which could hint at a planet’s potential habitability for life. ...The Webb telescope is sensitive to infrared wavelengths of light that are mostly blocked by Earth’s atmosphere. ...the infrared sensitivity is also critical for researchers.... When an exoplanet’s orbit takes it in front of its star, some of the starlight passes through the planet’s atmosphere and carries fingerprints of its composition. The atmospheric gases absorb specific wavelengths of light, which show up as dips in brightness when the starlight is spread out into a spectrum. For most gases of interest, the dips occur at infrared wavelengths.… 

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