Eternal Day and Night: Webb’s Journey To Understand a Distant World’s Bizarre Atmosphere

Near-infrared spectral analysis of terminator confirms differences in morning and evening atmosphere.
Since the first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, thousands of planets orbiting stars outside of our solar system have been confirmed through a myriad of different methods, including direct imaging, gravitational microlensing, measuring transits, and astrometry. Over the years, techniques have evolved to study these exoplanets, with astronomers learning details about the atmospheric compositions of these far-off worlds.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is continuing to advance this field of study and deepen our understanding about the diversity of exoplanets and their atmospheres.

The latest? Webb has allowed astronomers to parse out the atmospheric differences between the morning and evening on a tidally locked exoplanet — an incredible achievement for a distant world 700 light-years away from Earth like WASP-39 b.