NASA telescope detects carbon dioxide outside solar system for first time

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first clear evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system for the first time.

James Webb, world's premier space science observatory, continues to break new ground in space research, having detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. 

America's space agency made the announcement today, saying the planet in question was a gas giant about 700 light years away from Earth. 

The finding, accepted for publication in Nature, offers evidence that in the future Webb may be able to detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets.

"WASP-39b is a hot gas giant with a mass roughly one-quarter that of Jupiter (about the same as Saturn) and a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter," NASA said in a post.

"Its extreme puffiness is related in part to its high temperature (about 1600 degrees Fahrenheit or 900 degrees Celsius)."

The planet had initially been discovered in 2011.

Older telescopes had previously revealed water vapour, sodium and potassium in the planet's atmosphere - but the Webb telescope went further.

"As soon as the data appeared on my screen, the whopping carbon dioxide feature grabbed me," said researcher Zafar Rustamkulov.

"It was a special moment, crossing an important threshold in exoplanet sciences."

Understanding the composition of a planet's atmosphere is important because it tells scientists something about the origin of the planet and how it evolved.

"Carbon dioxide molecules are sensitive tracers of the story of planet formation," said Mike Line of Arizona State University, another member of the research team.

"By measuring this carbon dioxide feature, we can determine how much solid versus how much gaseous material was used to form this gas giant planet."