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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Your guess is right. When you shine a light through a gas, the gas will absorb certain wavelengths of light. This is called the gas’s absorption spectrum. If we look at a planet while it is passing in front of its star, the light from the star will shine through the atmosphere and travel to our telescope, and we will see all the frequencies of light *except* for the ones that the planet’s atmosphere absorbs. We can then match that spectrum to all of the gases we have tested on Earth, and find the one that lines up.
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