Just one exo-Earth pixel can reveal continents, oceans, and more

Scientists Observe Carbon Dioxide on Planets Outside the Solar System for the First Time

The findings provide strong evidence that four giant exoplanets 130 light-years from Earth formed much like Jupiter and Saturn.

Just one exo-Earth pixel can reveal continents, oceans, and more

Over the past 35 years, a tremendous transformation has occurred in astronomy. Back in 1990, there wasn’t a single planet known outside of our own Solar System. Exoplanets had been claimed previously, but all were found to be mere mirages: artifacts of false signals hiding in insufficiently precise data. Today, in 2025, we’re closing in on 6000 confirmed exoplanets, with the majority discovered either by transiting in front of their parent stars…

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured for the first time direct carbon dioxide signals from four gas giants of a multiplanetary system, located 130 light years away from the Earth. Observations suggest that planets have formed in a similar way to our four gas giants – slowly gathering around a solid nucleus. These results could provide valuable information on how our solar system has formed. Of the 6,000 exoplanets [...] This James Webb…