New technique may help NASA's Webb telescope detect oxygen on other planets

Researchers say NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has the potential to identify a signal produced by oxygen molecules in the atmospheres of exoplanets, according to a Jan. 6 press release.

If oxygen is present, that would indicate that there is possibly life on the planet. According to NASA, life produces oxygen by converting sunlight to chemical energy.

Thomas Fauchez, who is a scientist at the Space Research Association at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, is the author of a study on the topic published Jan. 6 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“Before our work, oxygen at similar levels as on Earth was thought to be undetectable with Webb, but we identify a promising way to detect it in nearby planetary systems,” Fauchez said in the release. “This oxygen signal is known since the early ’80s from Earth’s atmospheric studies, but has never been studied for exoplanet research."