from nasa James Webb Space Telescope has allowed scientists to measure the temperature of a rocky exoplanet and discovered that it has no atmosphere.
The planet, called TRAPPIST-1 b, is one of seven rocky, Earth-sized planets that orbit a nearby star.
The Webb Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) was able to measure the planet’s thermal energy emitted in the form of infrared light to determine that it reaches a temperature of 500 kelvins (approximately 450 degrees Fahrenheit).
‘This is the first detection of any form of light emitted by an exoplanet as small and as cold as the rocky planets in our own solar system,” NASA said in a statement.
“The result marks an important step in determining whether planets orbiting small, active stars like TRAPPIST-1 can support the atmospheres necessary to support life. It also bodes well for Webb’s ability to characterize temperate Earth-sized exoplanets using MIRI,’
“These observations really take advantage of Webb’s mid-infrared capability,” said Thomas Greene, lead author of the study. study published in the magazine Nature. “No previous telescope has had the sensitivity to measure such dim mid-infrared light.”
In early 2017, astronomers reported the discovery of seven rocky planets orbiting an ultracool red dwarf star (or M dwarf) 40 light-years from Earth.
What is remarkable about the planets is their similarity in size and mass to the inner rocky planets of our own solar system. Although they all orbit much closer to their star than any of our planets orbiting the Sun, they receive comparable amounts of energy from their tiny star.
TRAPPIST-1 b, the innermost planet, has an orbital distance about one-hundredth that of Earth and receives about four times the amount of energy Earth gets from the Sun.
Although it is not within the habitable zone of the system, observations of the planet can provide important information about its sister planets, as well as those of other M dwarf systems.
“There are ten times as many of these stars in the Milky Way as stars like the Sun, and they are twice as likely to have rocky planets as stars like the Sun,” Greene explained.
“But they’re also very active: they’re very bright when young, and they give off flares and X-rays that can destroy an atmosphere.”
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