My gf and I are just confused cos the best two telescopes out there are hubble and JWST, right? And they’re great at what they do respectively, but how the hell do we know that a planet millions of light years away has an atmosphere made up of x.
Was prompted because of an article which said “It may have detected a molecule called dimethyl sulphide (DMS). On Earth, at least, this is only produced by life. “ like how tf can we detect a MOLECULE that is so far away.
My guess is colours but no clue.
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>My guess is colours but no clue.
Pretty much.
Different molecules interact with light differently, absorbing or emitting light at different frequencies (colours) dependent on the properties of the molecule. We call these the spectral absorption/emission lines.
The hydrogen atom is a good example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_spectral_series
Telescopes like the JWST have what’s called a spectrometer, which “splits” the light into its constituent frequencies so that you can then compare the relative intensity of each frequency. Doing this reveals spectral lines, which can then be matched to molecules that we have studied in labs.
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