He NASA’s James Webb Telescope It became a major technological element for space exploration. Since its launch in December 2021, it has amazed the scientific community with its vision of the vast universe.
Recently, scientists published a new discovery thanks to the James Webb Telescope: Water vapor on worlds farthest from the Solar System. They used the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec).
study was headed by Sarah Moran, from the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Moran explains what rocky exoplanet GJ 486b shows “Disappointing Signs of Water Vapor”. This body is located near a star and its temperature is 430 degree Celsius.
The researchers point out that if water vapor is attached to the planet, is that it has an atmosphere despite the extremely high temperature and proximity to its star.
“We see a signal,” Moran says in a NASA statement. “And it’s almost certainly because of the water. But we can’t tell yet whether that water is part of the planet’s atmosphere, meaning it has an atmosphere, or if we are seeing signatures of water coming from the star.”
This is the exoplanet GJ 486 b, which has been studied thanks to the James Webb Telescope
Compared to planet Earth, The exoplanet GJ 486b is 30% larger and three times more massive. That is, its gravity is more than that of our planet.
GJ 486b orbits a red dwarf star within only 1.5 Earth days, And it is possible that it is blocked by mattes, with a permanent day side and a permanent night side.
Ryan MacDonald of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor noted: “We did not find evidence that the planet passed any starspots during the transit. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t spots on other parts of the star.”
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/metroworldnews/6NKMSLSWDBEMJMA3RQJRXR6QFA.jpg "James webb telescope finds water vapor on a distant planet from the solar system, what does it mean for us?")
“That’s exactly the physical landscape which will print this water sign in the data And eventually it may look like planetary atmospheres,” he said.
Scientists hope to delve deeper into GJ 486b Using the James Webb Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), To observe the day side of the exoplanet.
“If the planet has no atmosphere,” the NASA statement said, “or has only a thin atmosphere, The hottest part of the day is expected to be directly under the star. However, if the hottest spot is displaced, this would indicate an atmosphere that can radiate heat.”
