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An illustration of a habitable zone planet orbiting the star called TRAPPIST \u2013 credit NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI)<\/p>\n An illustration of a habitable zone planet orbiting the star called TRAPPIST \u2013 credit NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI)<\/p>\n
One of the major things that the mightily impressive James Webb Space Telescope was supposed to reveal has now potentially been revealed.<\/p>\n
Groundbreaking new research from the University of St. Andrews has identified signs of a possible atmosphere surrounding an Earth-sized exoplanet located 40 light years away, raising excitement that habitable conditions beyond our solar system might be detected for the first time.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0two separate papers<\/a> published in early September in the Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/a>, researchers have shed new light on an exoplanet, TRAPPIST-1e, where liquid water, in the form of a global ocean or icy expanse, might exist on its surface.<\/p>\n Located in the red dwarf star system TRAPPIST-1, the planet orbits firmly within the star\u2019s habitable zone. Planet 1e is of particular interest because the presence of liquid water is theoretically viable, but only if the planet has an atmosphere.<\/p>\n The initial results indicate several potential scenarios, including the possibility\u202fof an atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1e. These findings are a significant moment in the search for habitable conditions beyond Earth, as they would present the readings typical of a planet with an atmosphere, and then could be applied when searching others.<\/p>\n We currently search for life not by looking for it, but looking for what it does: compounds linked with metabolism, for instance. In that sense, an atmosphere is a vital signal to hone in on when looking for evidence for metabolism.<\/p>\n \u201cTRAPPIST-1e has long been considered one of the best habitable zone planets to search for an atmosphere,\u201d explains<\/a> Dr. Ryan MacDonald, Lecturer in Extrasolar Planets in the School of Physics and Astronomy at St. Andrews. \u201cBut when our observations came down in 2023, we quickly realized that the system\u2019s red dwarf star was contaminating our data in ways that made the search for an atmosphere extremely challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers aimed the JWST\u2019s powerful NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument at the system as planet 1e passed in front of its star. Starlight passing through the planet\u2019s atmosphere, if there is one, will be partially absorbed and the corresponding changes in the light spectrum that reaches the JWST tell astronomers what chemicals are found there.<\/p>\n The team spent over a year carefully correcting the data for the star\u2019s contamination before they could zero in on the planet\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n