Keith Cooper is a freelance science journalist and editor in the United Kingdom, and has a degree in physics and astrophysics from the University of Manchester.
An artist's impression of GJ 3470b in front of its star, surrounded by a cloud of hydrogen that is being stripped from its atmosphere.has been found to contain sulfur dioxide in its atmosphere — an atmosphere that's also gushing into space as the planet loops over its star's poles on a steeply inclined orbit every three-and-a-third days.
The sulfur dioxide detection came to light thanks to the fact that GJ 3470b transits its star, which allows astronomers to conduct what's called"transmission spectroscopy." As light from its parent star shines through itsthe GJ 3470b's atmosphere, molecules in the world's atmosphere absorb some of the starlight, leaving dark absorption lines in the star's spectrum.
Instead, the JWST was able to confirm absorption lines from carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor, and indeed detect sulfur dioxide in the region for the first. This actually makes GJ 3470b the lightest and coldest exoplanet yet known to have sulfur dioxide in its atmosphere. Previous detections have related to the atmospheres of hot Jupiters with temperatures above a thousand degrees Celsius .
The planet's parent star doesn't just break up atmospheric molecules, however; hydrogen liberated from those molecules can be stripped them from the planet entirely. GJ 3470b is therefore literally, leaving a stream of hydrogen gas trailing behind. Already, the planet has lost an estimated 40% of its original mass.
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