Webb Discovers Mystery Sulfur On Distant Planet

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GJ 3470 b is a gas dwarf with unexpected sulfur dioxide in its atmosphere. This discovery provides insights into planet formation and chemical reactions.

A surprising yellow haze of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere of a gas ⁘dwarf⁘ exoplanet about 96 light years away from our own solar system makes the planet a prime target for scientists trying to understand how worlds are formed.

Planets outside our solar system ⁘ called exoplanets ⁘ like GJ 3470 b are interesting subjects for researchers wondering how planets are created. Ideally, astronomers capture light from a star that shines through the edge of the planet⁘s atmosphere. This allows them to assemble a measure of the component light, or its spectrum, a readout marked by spikes and dips characteristic of the interesting molecules found in that atmosphere.

Thomas Beatty is an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin⁘Madison. Credit: University of Wisconsin⁘Madison

⁘The thing is, everybody looks at these planets, and often everybody sees flat lines,⁘ says University of Wisconsin⁘Madison astronomy professor Thomas Beatty. ⁘But when we looked at this planet, we really didn⁘t get a flat line.⁘

They saw evidence of water, carbon dioxide, methane and sulfur dioxide, findings Beatty presented in Madison today at the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society and that he will soon publish in Astrophysical Journal Letters with co-authors from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, NASA ⁘s Ames Research Center and other organizations.

GJ 3470 b is the lightest and coldest (averaging a mere 325 degrees Celsius , or more than 600 Fahrenheit ) exoplanet to harbor sulfur dioxide. The compound is likely a sign of the churn of active chemical reactions in the planet⁘s atmosphere, created when radiation from its nearby star blasts apart the components of hydrogen sulfide, which then go looking for new molecular partners.