{"id":282731,"date":"2025-07-22T14:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T14:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/282731\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T14:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T14:39:08","slug":"its-official-james-webb-telescope-to-investigate-an-impossible-planet-that-could-contain-methane-ammonia-and-revolutionize-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/282731\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s official – James Webb telescope to investigate an impossible planet that could contain methane, ammonia… and revolutionize science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again the James Webb Space Telescope has been set to study an extraordinary NASA discovery. This time, James Webb will be in charge of studying an exoplanet called TOI-6894b, which orbits the red dwarf star TOI-6894 in the constellation Leo. This discovery by NASA, published in Nature Astronomy and based on data from the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission, reveals a gas planet about the size of Saturn with a unique atmosphere where compounds like methane and ammonia are expected.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure you have heard about the James Webb Telescope<\/a> if you are into reading NASA articles, because this is one of the most powerful telescopes from NASA and it has been part of many missions. So, let\u2019s learn more about what the James Webb Telescope has done and what it might reveal about planetary formation around small stars.<\/p>\n

A planet nearly the size of Saturn<\/p>\n

NASA recently found a giant gas planet, almost as big as Saturn, orbiting a tiny star called a red dwarf. This star is really small\u2014only about 20% the size of our Sun\u2014and it\u2019s located in the constellation Leo. Scientists were shocked when they found this event because they thought it was impossible for small stars to form planets of such big size.<\/p>\n

Why was this not expected?<\/p>\n

The reason is that smaller stars have protoplanetary disks (the regions of gas and dust around a star where planets form) with less material to form large bodies. In theory, with less gas and dust, a giant planet should not form. However, the planet found, called TOI-6894b<\/a>, has a radius slightly larger than Saturn\u2019s but only half its mass, which means it is a low-density, very \u201cfluffy\u201d planet. It is the smallest giant planet known to orbit such a small star.<\/p>\n

Does this discovery affect current theories?<\/p>\n

The discovery has thrown a wrench into traditional ideas about how planets form\u2014especially the core accretion theory. That model says a rocky core builds up gradually, then pulls in gas over time to become a giant planet. But for that to happen, there needs to be plenty of material and time\u2014something small stars like TOI-6894 aren\u2019t thought to have. So how did TOI-6894b come to be? Astronomers have two main ideas:<\/p>\n