JWST tagged posts

New observations reveal the challenges of detecting planetary atmospheres

Recent measurements with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) cast doubt on the current understanding of the exoplanet Trappist-1 b’s nature. Until now, it was assumed to be a dark rocky planet without an atmosphere, shaped by a billion-year-long cosmic impact of radiation and meteorites. The opposite appears to be true. The surface shows no signs of weathering, which could indicate geological activity such as volcanism and plate tectonics. Alternatively, a planet with a hazy atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide is also viable. The results demonstrate the challenges of determining the properties of exoplanets with thin atmospheres.

Trappist-1 b is one of seven rocky planets orbiting the star Trappist-1, ...

For the past 30 years, NASA’s Great Observatories—the Hubble, Spitzer, Compton, and Chandra space telescopes—have revealed some amazing things about the universe. In addition to some of the deepest views of the universe provided by the Hubble Deep Fields campaign, these telescopes have provided insight into the unseen parts of the cosmos—i.e., in the infrared, gamma-ray, and ultraviolet spectrums.

With the success of these observatories and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA is contemplating future missions that would reveal even more of the “unseen universe.”

This includes the UltraViolet Explorer (UVEX), a space telescope NASA plans to launch in 2030 as its next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission...

The unusual system of three ‘super puff’ planets has at least one more planet, revealed by its gravitational tug on other planets. An unusual planetary system with three known ultra-low density “super-puff” planets has at least one more planet, according to new research led by researchers from Penn State and Osaka University...

Reionization is a critical period when the first stars and galaxies changed the physical structure of their surroundings, and eventually the entire universe. Established theories state that this epoch ended around 1 billion years after the Big Bang. However, if calculating this milestone using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), reionization would have ended at least 350 million years earlier than expected. That’s according to a new paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.

Throughout its history, the universe has undergone several major changes...