NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has found that the water revolves in the air of a distant alien planet, reports a new study.
That exotic world is toi-421 b, a boiling “Subneptano“Orbiting a star about 244 light years from Earth whose atmosphere Jwst Recently probe in detail.
“One of the most exciting perspectives in Exoplanet Today’s science is discovering the origin and composition of subneptunes, which are planets of senior occurrence that do not have solar system analogue, “the study team wrote in Your rolewhich was published on Monday (May 5) in the astronomical magazine Letters.
Although JWST was specifically designed for this type of research, the discovery is particularly exciting because little is known about this kind of planets, which were first identified by NASA’s pioneer. Kepler Space Telescope. Before JWST, he tries to study the atmospheres of the sub-nepton planets using transmission spectra, the measurement of the light of the filtered star through the atmosphere of a planet when it passes in front of its guest star, often produced flat or without characteristics.
Therefore, instead of showing chemical fingerprints that could indicate the presence of atmospheric molecules such as carbon dioxide, methane or water vapor, the spectra of the subsptures have generally offered little useful information. Astronomers proposed that this lack of details could be due to clouds or boyfriends, which could be obscured the signals.
But the study team thought that Toi-421 B could be different and, therefore, could offer a unique opportunity.
“Why do we observe this planet, toi-421 b? It is because we think that it would not have bones,” the principal researcher Eliza Kempton, a professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland, said in a statement. “And the reason is that there were some previous data that implied that perhaps [sub-Neptune] The planets in a certain temperature range were less wrapped by the clouds or clouds than others. “
PREVIOUS OBSERVATIONS WITH NASA Hubble Space Telescope He had shown that flat spectral characteristics are common among sub-neptunes with temperatures below 1,070 degrees Fahrenheit (577 degrees Celsius).
“Hotter sub-neptunes [than this threshold] They are also expected to be fog -free because methane, and therefore, hydrocarbon precursors for fog formation should be less abundant as carbon monoxide becomes the dominant molecule that contains carbon, “the team wrote in the new study.
TO-421 B, with an estimated atmospheric temperature of 1,340 degrees Fahrenheit (727 degrees C), falls into this category potentially without mist, and, after observing two transits using the almost infrared infrared spectrography of JWST and the instruments of nearby infrared images and almost without sliding, the equipment was rewarded with a rich atmospheric profile.
“We saw spectral characteristics that we attributed to several gases, and that allowed us to determine the composition of the atmosphere,” Brian Davenport, Ph.D. Student at the University of Maryland who conducted primary data analysis, he said in the same statement.
The equipment detected water vapor in the to-421 B atmosphere, along with possible signs of carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. In particular, they found no evidence of methane or carbon dioxide. The data also suggest that the atmosphere contains a significant amount of hydrogen.
Some of these findings are surprising, challenging existing theories about the formation and evolution of subneptan planets.
“We had recently wrapped our mind around the idea that these first sub-neptunes observed by Webb had atmospheres of heavy molecules, so they had become our expectation, and then we found the opposite,” Kempton said. This means that TO-421 B may have formed and evolved differently from colder sub-neptunas, such as To-270 dwhich was previously observed.
The hydrogen-rich atmosphere is especially intriguing because the composition of the Toi-421 B guest reflects closely star.
“If the same gas that the host star made, left it on the atmosphere of a planet and put it at the much colder temperature of this planet, will obtain the same combination of gases,” said Kempton. “That process is more in line with the giant planets in our solar system, and is different from other subconeptuns that have been observed with Webb so far.”
“I had been waiting for all my career for Webb so that we could significantly characterize the atmospheres of these smaller planets,” he continued. “When studying their atmospheres, we are better understanding how sub-neptunes were formed and evolved, and part of that is to understand why they do not exist in our solar system.”
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