Atmospheric spectrum and detection of water (IMAGE)

University of Montreal

Atmospheric spectrum and detection of water

Caption

The team obtained the thermal emission spectrum of WASP-18 b by measuring the amount of light it emits over the Webb Telescope’s NIRISS SOSS 0.85 - 2.8 micron wavelength range, capturing 65% of the total energy emitted by the planet. WASP-18 b is so hot on the day side of this tidally locked planet that water molecules would be vaporised. Webb directly observed water vapor on the planet in even relatively small amounts, indicating the sensitivity of the observatory.

Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech (R. Hurt/IPAC)

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