JWST Confirms Its First Exoplanet – And It’s Earth-Sized!

JWST has confirmed the being of an exoplanet for the first prison term . The space telescope has provided the authoritative measurement of LHS 475 b , confirming that it is indeed a planet , and was able to establish its sizing and a bit about its atmosphere . The satellite is almost the size of it of our planet , with a diameter 99 pct of Earth ’s own .

The telescope spotted it as it crossed in front of its asterisk , a red dwarf humble than the Sun and with about half the surface temperature . That said , the planet orbit a lot closer to its virtuoso , and it gets a lot more radiation . But this means that it pass in front of its star more often , orbiting in just two days – and with just two transit , JWSTwas capable of demonstrating that the planet was indeed there , and that it was small .

“ We ’re at the forefront of studying humble , rocky exoplanets , ” project co - lead Jacob Lustig - Yaeger fromJohns Hopkins University , said in astatement . “ We have barely begun rub the aerofoil of what their atmosphere might be like . ”

JWST late corroborate the bearing of carbon dioxide and even sulfur dioxide , but that was in a big hot major planet – ahot Saturn . LHS 475 group B is petite in comparison , and data from the atmospheric state is even more difficult to obtain . More observations are needed .

“ The lookout station ’s data are beautiful , ” added Erin May , also from Johns Hopkins University . “ The telescope is so tender that it can easily detect a range of speck , but we ca n’t yet make any definitive conclusions about the satellite ’s atmosphere .

The team can enjoin that the exoplanet is a few hundred degree hotter than Earth , so if in stick with - up observance they discover clouds , then the world would be more like Venus . Currently , they can only exclude some scenarios found on the data point , but it could be that the satellite has no atmosphere or an atmosphere made of everlasting carbon dioxide like Mars .

“ There are some telluric - type atmosphere that we can dominate out . It ca n’t have a thickheaded methane - prevail atmospheric state , similar to that of Saturn ’s moonTitan , ” explain Lustig - Yaeger . “ Counterintuitively , a 100 % carbon dioxide atmosphere is so much more compact that it becomes very challenging to observe . ”

The precise measurements ask to realize more about this planet will come this summer , but the oeuvre already show what an asset JWST is to the study of rocky planet . The squad ’s outcome were represent atthe 241st merging of the American Astronomical Societyon Wednesday , January 11 , 2023 .