James Webb Telescope reveals alien planet’s warmth and atmosphere

Recently, a team of scientists from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to measure the amount of heat and atmosphere on exoplanet TRAPPIST-1c.

In the study published in the scientific journal Nature, researchers likely exoplanet has an extremely thin layer of atmosphere and a surface with high temperatures.

The exoplanet orbits a red dwarf star about 40 light-years from Earth and is tidally locked; This means that one side of TRAPPIST-1c always faces one side of the star — on the hottest side, a temperature of about 107°C has been recorded.

Using the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), the scientists measured the amount of infrared light emitted by the planet, and from that, they were able to measure the temperature of the surface. By making measurements of the star’s brightness, they determined that the infrared light coming from the daytime side of TRAPPIST-1c totaled 15 microns. suggests that the planet has a rocky surface and a very thin layer of atmosphere containing carbon dioxide (CO2).

“TRAPPIST-1 c is interesting because it’s basically Venus’ twin: it’s about the same size as Venus and receives a similar amount of radiation from its host star as Venus gets from the Sun. We think it might have a thick carbon atmosphere. From the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (Germany) “Dioxide as Venus, carbon,” said Laura Kreidberg, scientist and co-author of the paper.

Alien exoplanet without atmosphere

Despite its resemblance to Venus, The data show that the exoplanet does not have a thick atmosphere of CO2 or clouds of sulfuric acid like the second planet of the Solar System.. The absence or thin layer of the atmosphere indicates that the planet may have formed with little water.

In addition to the discovery itself, scientists argue that the data obtained by JWST is crucial for the future of space exploration involving exoplanets similar to planets in our solar system. Researchers study a An important step in determining whether similar exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars can support atmospheres and life as we know it..

“We want to know if rocky planets have atmospheres. In the past, we could only really study planets with dense, hydrogen-rich atmospheres. With Sebastian Zieba, a Max Planck Institute for Astronomy graduate student and co-author of the study, we can finally start looking for atmospheres dominated by oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide.” ” said.