In a first for astronomers surveying the depths of space, carbon dioxide has been detected on an exoplanet – that is, a planet lying outside our solar system.

Thanks to the coronagraph images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have been able to comprehend the atmospheric composition of planets in the HR 8799 system, which is located 130 light years away from our own home planet.

And this discovery is extremely promising in our plight to understand how other solar systems differ from our own, and whether life is possible in other parts of space.

In their study, which has been recently published in The Astrophysical Journal, the team deduced that at least some of the planets in HR 8799 were created in much the same way as our own gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, by something known as core accretion.

That is, a small rocky (or, potentially, icy) core forms first, which then attracts gases around it. Ultimately, these gases form the thick cover that becomes the planet’s atmosphere.

And, as Johns Hopkins University astrophysicist William Balmer, who led the study, confirms in a statement, this new information is ground-breaking in our knowledge and understanding of other multi-planetary systems:

“By spotting these strong carbon dioxide features, we have shown there is a sizable fraction of heavier elements, such as carbon, oxygen, and iron, in these planets’ atmospheres. Given what we know about the star they orbit, that likely indicates they formed via core accretion, which for planets that we can directly see is an exciting conclusion.”

And why is understanding this young planetary system important?

Well, not only can scientists begin to understand the way in which our 4.6 billion year old solar system compares to those of other ages (HR 8799 is just 30 million years old), it can also help us to comprehend the different ways in which other planets and stars form.

By understanding how other solar systems compare to our own, we can – among other things – begin to understand how likely life in other systems is, as Balmer continued:

“Our hope with this kind of research is to understand our own solar system, life, and ourselves in comparison to other exoplanetary systems, so we can contextualize our existence. We want to take pictures of other solar systems and see how they’re similar or different when compared to ours. From there, we can try to get a sense of how weird our solar system really is—or how normal.”

Though this possibility was once entirely impossible, the power of the James Webb Telescope is allowing astronomers to unpick the secrets of planetary bodies much further away from our own than ever before imagined.

And with more and more images of space accumulating as the telescope continues its journey through space, we can only wonder what incredible observations it will gather next.

Perhaps one day we’ll get a real answer as to whether we are alone out here in space.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.