Webb telescope finds a 'hot Jupiter' exoplanet that defies expectations

By Tereza Pultarova published about 2 hours ago

The exoplanet Smertrios has a surprising abundance of heavy elements in its atmosphere.



The James Webb Space Telescope found that exoplanet Smertrios has an atmosphere that defies expectations. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)


The atmospheres of gas giant planets across the Milky Way galaxy can be very different from those in our solar system, the James Webb Space Telescope has found.

Observations of the distant exoplanet HD149026b, also known as Smertrios, revealed that the planet's atmosphere is rich in what scientists call heavy elements, essentially anything other than hydrogen and helium. In Smertrios' atmosphere, the James Webb Space Telescope detected high concentrations of carbon and oxygen.

The results have taken astronomers by surprise. In gas giant planets of our solar system, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, scientists see a clear correlation between the planet's mass and the amount of heavy elements in the atmosphere. The more massive the planet, the lower the concentrations of these elements in its atmosphere.

"The giant planets of our solar system exhibit a nearly perfect correlation between both overall composition and atmospheric composition and mass," Jacob Bean, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago and lead author of a new paper describing the observations, said in a statement(opens in new tab).

More:
https://www.space.com/webb-telescope-hot-jupiter-exoplanet-atmosphere?utm_source=notification