An artist’s rendering of the warm exoplanet WASP-80 b whose color may appear bluish to human eyes due to the lack of high-altitude clouds and the presence of atmospheric methane identified by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, similar to the planets Uranus and Neptune in our own solar system. Image credit: NASA.

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   Fraser Cain (fraser@m.universetoday.com)'s status on Thursday, 23-Nov-2023 05:01:58 JST Fraser Cain

   Webb continues to find chemicals in the atmospheres of exoplanets, like carbon dioxide and water vapor. Astronomers report they've discovered methane in the atmosphere of WASP 80 b. Although life can produce methane, there are inorganic ways to generate it, too. Methane has been found in the atmospheres of all the giant planets in the Solar System. WASP 80 b is a "warm jupiter", warmer than our planets but nothing like the hottest planets found.

   https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2023/11/22/nasas-webb-identifies-methane-in-an-exoplanets-atmosphere/