James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured direct images of multiple gas giant planets within a fascinating planetary system known as HR 8799, a young system which is around 130 light-years away. 

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This planetary system has long been a key target for planet formation studies. In an official report, NASA said that the observations indicate that the well-studied planets of HR 8799 are rich in carbon dioxide gas. 

The US space further said that the finding provides strong evidence that the system's four giant planets formed much like Jupiter and Saturn, by slowly building solid cores that attract gas from within a protoplanetary disk - a process known as core accretion. 

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 The results were published on Monday (Mar 17) in The Astrophysical Journal. 

The planetary system boasts four gas giant exoplanets, each with unique characteristics. HR 8799 e, for instance, is a gas giant with a mass of 10 Jupiters, taking 57 years to complete one orbit around its star.

The results also confirm that Webb can infer the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres through imaging. This technique complements Webb’s powerful spectroscopic instruments, which can resolve the atmospheric composition. 

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As quoted by NASA, William Balmer, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said, "By spotting these strong carbon dioxide features, we have shown there is a sizable fraction of heavier elements, like 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 is an exciting conclusion for planets that we can directly see," said Balmer, who is the lead author of the study. 

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NASA said that the team is vying for more detailed observations to determine whether objects they see orbiting other stars are truly giant planets or objects such as brown dwarfs.

Brown dwarfs also form like stars but they don't accumulate enough mass to ignite nuclear fusion. 

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"We have other lines of evidence that hint at these four HR 8799 planets forming using this bottom-up approach," said Laurent Pueyo, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who co-led the work. 

"How common is this for planets we can directly image? We don't know yet, but we're proposing more Webb observations to answer that question," Pueyo added. 

(With inputs from agencies)