Webb identifies methane in an exoplanet's atmosphere

The James Webb Space Telescope observed the exoplanet WASP-80 b as it passed in front of and behind its host star, revealing spectra indicative of an atmosphere containing methane gas and water vapor. While water vapor has been detected in over a dozen planets to date, until recently, methane—a molecule found in abundance in the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune within our solar system—has remained elusive in the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets when studied with space-based spectroscopy.