The James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first direct images of carbon dioxide in a planet outside the solar system in HR 8799, a multiplanet system 130 light-years away that has long been a key target for planet formation studies.

For years, astronomers have sought a way to directly observe the atmospheres of exoplanets, worlds orbiting distant stars. Unlike indirect detection methods, such as transit observations or radial velocity measurements,

The JWST has spotted the presence of carbon dioxide on HR 8799’s four known planets, part of a system astronomers use to explore the formation of our own system. The results are consistent with models of how the Solar System’s giant planets formed.