Tech Desk 
Mar 18, 2025
An undated image. — Unsplash
In a surprising turn of events in the realm of space exploration, the James Webb Space Telescope on Monday directly captured the key chemical of carbon dioxide in exoplanets (planets outside of Earth's solar system) for the first time.
It has been discovered that the gas-made planets are unwelcoming for extraterrestrial life, but they hint at, in a mysterious way, the process of the formation of distant planets, The News reported, citing a study in The Astrophysical Journal.
The carbon dioxide chemical was spotted on the HR 8799 system, 130 light years from Earth, which is reportedly 30 million years old, no more than a baby planet compared to Earth's 4.6 billion-year-old solar system.
The discovery was carried out by a team of US-based researchers using the James Webb Telescope. Carbon dioxide was directly detected in the atmosphere of all four of the system´s known planets.
To catch an accurate glimpse of planets circling them, the scientists used the Telescope´s coronagraph instruments, blocking the light from bright stars.
“It´s like putting your thumb up in front of the Sun when you´re looking up at the sky,” lead study author William Balmer, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University, told AFP.
The Webb telescope is typically known for spotting exoplanets only when they cross from across their host star. This “transiting method's” recent account dates back to 2022 when Webb indirectly detected CO2 in the atmosphere of the gas giant WASP-39.
