NASA's James Webb finds Beta Pictoris d through spectroscopy
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope just found a giant new planet, Beta Pictoris d, hanging out 63 light-years from Earth.
This marks the first time a directly imaged exoplanet has been discovered primarily through moderate-resolution spectroscopy.
The planet is at least twice the mass of Jupiter and orbits pretty far from its star, roughly 30 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
NIRSpec carbon monoxide detection confirmed
Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) helped spot Beta Pictoris d by picking up unique chemical signals, especially carbon monoxide, in its atmosphere.
European researchers backed up the discovery with independent imaging, showing that spectroscopy can reveal planets even in tricky places where regular cameras struggle because of bright debris disks.
Scientists are now eager to learn more about this distant world's orbit and atmosphere.