directly visible<\/a> through ground-based telescopes.<\/p>\n\u201cHR 8799 is somewhat unique because, thus far, it\u2019s the only imaged system with four massive gas giants, but there are other known systems with one or two even larger companions and whose formation remains unknown,\u201d said Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ruffio, an astronomer at the University of California, San Diego.<\/p>\n
Using Webb\u2019s unprecedented sensitivity, Dr. Ruffio and colleagues measured in detail the chemical make-up of three planets orbiting HR 8799: HR 8799c, d, and e.<\/p>\n
The planets are about 10,000 times fainter than their star, and to extract the weak signal from the Webb data, the researchers developed new data analysis techniques.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarbon and oxygen in these planets have been studied from Earth-based observations in the past, but they\u2019re not good signatures for solid matter because they can come from both ice or solids in the disk, or from gas,\u201d said Dr. Jerry Xuan, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles and Caltech.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut sulfur is unique because at the distance these planets are from their star, it has to be in the solids.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no way these planets could have accreted sulfur as gas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The discovery of hydrogen sulfide means that the sulfur was accreted, or accumulated, in the form of solid matter from solids already present in the disk around the star from which the planets were born.<\/p>\n
These solids were gobbled up as the planet formed, and because the young planet\u2019s core and atmosphere were extremely hot, the solids evaporated into the sulfur gas present today.<\/p>\n
The ratio of sulfur to hydrogen, as well as that of carbon and oxygen to hydrogen, is much higher than what is found in the star; therefore, the composition of the planets has to be quite different from that of the star.<\/p>\n
The same puzzling pattern of uniform enrichment in heavy elements is also found in Jupiter and Saturn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to explain the uniform enrichment of carbon, oxygen, sulfur and nitrogen for Jupiter, but the fact that we\u2019re seeing this in a different system is suggesting that there\u2019s something universal going on in the formation of planets, that it\u2019s quite natural to have them accrete all heavy elements in nearly equal proportions,\u201d Dr. Xuan said.<\/p>\n
According to the authors, their discovery will help the search for Earth-like exoplanets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe technique applied here, which lets researchers visually and spectrally separate the planet from the star, will be useful for studying exoplanets at great distances from Earth in clear detail,\u201d Dr. Xuan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe method is still limited to studying gas giants, but eventually, as telescopes get bigger and as instruments improve, scientists will be able to apply this kind of technique to study Earth-like planets.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFinding an Earth analog is the Holy Grail for exoplanet search, but we\u2019re probably decades away from achieving that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut maybe in 20-30 years, we\u2019ll get the first spectrum of an Earth-like planet and search for biosignatures like oxygen and ozone in its atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
The findings<\/a> were published February 9, 2026 in the journal Nature Astronomy.<\/p>\n_____<\/p>\n
JB. Ruffio et al. Jupiter-like uniform metal enrichment in a system of multiple giant exoplanets. Nat Astron, published online February 9, 2026; doi: 10.1038\/s41550-026-02783-z<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astronomers using the NASA\/ESA\/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have for the first time identified hydrogen sulfide gas in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[10803,10804,10805,910,25260,142630,142631,142632,142633,103294,61,60,142634,91,6292,22425,82,8881,53829,142635,5623],"class_list":{"0":"post-301515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-atmosphere","9":"tag-csa","10":"tag-esa","11":"tag-exoplanet","12":"tag-gas-giant","13":"tag-hr-8799","14":"tag-hr-8799c","15":"tag-hr-8799d","16":"tag-hr-8799e","17":"tag-hydrogen-sulfide","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-metallicity","21":"tag-nasa","22":"tag-planet-formation","23":"tag-protoplanetary-disk","24":"tag-science","25":"tag-spectrum","26":"tag-sulfur","27":"tag-super-jupiter","28":"tag-webb"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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