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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Basically, you’re right: we look at the spectrum of light from the source, and we can make good guesses about what gases compose its atmosphere.
Gases absorb and emit certain frequencies of light more than others. It’s how we figured out what’s in the atmospheres of stars: gases that are energetic enough emit light, and cool enough absorb light, in ways that create bright or dark bands in the normal spectrum.
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