The James Webb Space Telescope has detected water vapor around a rocky exoplanet, orbiting a star 26 light years from Earth.
astronomers observed a rocky exoplanetnamed hot GJ 486b with the James Webb Telescope. This planet is about 30% larger than Earth and has a much stronger surface gravity than our planet, CNN reported May 2.
Simulation of the planet GJ 486 b orbiting an extrasolar red dwarf.
Simulation of the planet GJ 486 b orbiting an extrasolar red dwarf. (Photo: ASA/ESA/CSA/Joseph Olmsted).
It orbits a star and completes one orbit in 1.5 days in Earth time. The close distance between this planet and its host star makes possible The surface temperature is 800 degrees F (430 degrees C).
Astronomers believe that this planet has only one side which always points towards the star, similar to how the Sun revolves around the Earth.
Although high temperatures make the planet uninhabitable, observations of GJ 486 b by James Webb’s near-infrared spectrometer showed that steam sign. The detailed study of the discovery has been approved for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The presence of steam may be an indication of GJ 486 somehow has its own atmospheredespite the high temperature and the location very close to the host star.
Although water vapor has been detected on gaseous exoplanets before, scientists have yet to find an atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet. This, if proven, would be a historic discovery, as it means that there are planet shapes similar to Earth or Mars – thought to be rocky planets – outside the solar system.
“Atmospheric water vapor on a hot rocky planet would be a major breakthrough for exoplanet science”said study co-author Kevin Ѕtevenson, principal investigator of the James Webb Observational Program at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Future observations of the planet using different instruments of the James Webb Telescope could reveal more details about the origin of water vapour.
Article Source: Zing
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The James Webb Space Telescope has detected water vapor around a rocky planet outside the solar system. This planet orbits a star…
