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    NIRSpec tagged posts

    Ultra-hot lava world has thick atmosphere, upending expectations

    December 29, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An emission spectrum captured by NIRSpec (the Near-Infrared Spectrograph) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in May 2024 shows the brightness of different wavelengths of 3- to 5-micron light coming from the ultra-hot super-Earth exoplanet TOI-561 b. Comparisons of the data to theoretical models suggest that the planet is not a bare rock, but is instead surrounded by a volatile-rich atmosphere. 

    A Carnegie-led team of astronomers detected the strongest evidence yet of an atmosphere around a rocky planet beyond our solar system. Their work, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, used NASA’s JWST to reveal an alien atmosphere in an unexpected place—an ancient, ultra-hot super-Earth that likely hosts a magma ocean.

    TOI-561 b is a rocky world that’s about twice Earth’s ma...

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    Tiny Bright Objects discovered at Dawn of Universe baffle scientists

    June 30, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Circles of light on a black background
    Researchers investigated three mysterious objects in the early universe. Shown here are their color images, composited from three NIRCam filter bands onboard the James Webb Space Telescope. They are remarkably compact at red wavelengths (earning them the term “little red dots”) with some evidence for spatial structure at blue wavelengths. Credit: Provided by researchers / Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

    A recent discovery by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) confirmed that luminous, very red objects previously detected in the early universe upend conventional thinking about the origins and evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes.

    An international team, led by Penn State researchers, using the NIRSpec instrument aboard JWST as part of the RUBIES survey...

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    Reconnaissance of Potentially Habitable Worlds with Webb

    June 6, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This infographic compares the characteristics of three classes of stars in our galaxy: Sunlike stars are classified as G stars; stars less massive and cooler than our Sun are K dwarfs; and even fainter and cooler stars are the reddish M dwarfs. The size of the habitable zone is different for each class of star. In our solar system, the habitable zone begins just beyond the orbit of Venus and almost encompasses Mars. Credits: NASA, ESA and Z. Levy (STScI)

    Exoplanets are common in our galaxy, and some even orbit in the so-called habitable zone of their star. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been busy observing a few of these small, potentially habitable planets, and astronomers are now hard at work analyzing Webb data. We invite Drs...

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    Unlocking the Secrets of a ‘Hot Saturn’ and its Spotted Star

    January 14, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Led by researchers from Université de Montréal’s Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), a team of astronomers has harnessed the power of the revolutionary James Webb Space Webb Telescope (JWST) to study the “hot Saturn” exoplanet HAT-P-18 b.

    Their findings, published last month in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, paint a complete picture of the HAT-P-18 b’s atmosphere while exploring the great challenge of distinguishing its atmospheric signals from the activity of its star.

    HAT-P-18 b is located over 500 light-years away with a mass similar to Saturn’s but a size closer to that the larger planet Jupiter. As a result, the exoplanet has a “puffed-up” atmosphere that is especially ideal for analysis.

    Passing over a spotted star

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