James Webb Telescope Observes The Difference In Exoplanet Atmospheric Atmospheres During The Day And Night

Illustration of the WASP-39b atmosphere display (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA Researchers observed the atmosphere of one of the exoplanets using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. They examined WASP-39b, a planet that is 1.3 times larger than Jupiter. Using Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), researchers analyzed the transmission spectrum of WASP-39b to separate the day and night sides. This technique was carried out to obtain temperature information, composition, and properties of the atmosphere. Néstor Espinoza, one of the researchers observing WASP-39b, said that the discovery could be used as a reference for studying other exoplanets. Espinoza believes in the results of its findings because the screened signal from WASP-39b is quite strong. "This platform has an expanding and thick atmosphere, so the signal coming from stellar light screened through the planet's atmosphere is quite strong," Espinoza said, quoted from NASA's blog. Espinoza and colleagues' findings show that the WASP-39b temperature at night is much hotter than during the day. The temperature is also extreme enough because it reaches 800 degrees Celsius at night and 600 degrees Celsius during the day.

This is a very interesting finding and certainly very different from the conditions on Earth. Usually, the temperature at night tends to be cooler because there is no light from the Sun. The night temperature on the Moon is also experiencing the same thing. "It's amazing that we were able to outline this small discrepancy (in the WASP-39b atmosphere), and it's only possible because of Webb's sensitivity at near-infrared wavelengths and its very stable photometric sensor," said Espinoza. After finding this very interesting difference, Espinoza and other scientists plan to observe exoplanets with conditions similar to WASP-39b. They will study planets categorized as hot-temperature Jupiters. During observing other exoplanets, they will use data from the results of the WASP-39b observations. These observations, including WASP-39b, are part of the Webb Cycle 2 3969 General Observation Program.