"James Webb" discovered an ancient "water world" in a nearby star system
Miscellaneous / / May 16, 2023
And it can be rich in methane.
NASA astronomers have finally been able to peer through the clouds over the mini-Neptune GJ 1214b. As it turned out, there are signs of a large amount of water in its atmosphere. results research published in the journal Nature.
Mini-Neptune is the most common type of planet outside the solar system. They are called so because of the similarity with our gas giant of the same name. GJ 1214b was the first of this class to be discovered. It is located at a distance of 40 light years from Earth.
Previous observations of the distant exoplanet were thwarted by a thick layer of clouds. However, thanks to the infrared thermal vision of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers still managed to bypass the obstacle and study its surface.
As it turned out, the atmosphere of GJ 1214b consists of steam. And it regularly experiences sudden temperature changes: during the day it reaches 280 degrees Celsius, and at night it drops by more than 40 degrees.
Such weather conditions indicate that the planet's atmosphere cannot consist only of light hydrogen molecules. There must be something else, such as water or methane, scientists are sure.
All indications are that GJ 1214b "either lost a lot of hydrogen, or was originally formed from heavier elements - an icy, water-rich material."
The simplest explanation, if you find a very water-rich planet, is that it formed far away from its parent star.
Eliza Kempton
Astronomer from the University of Marylen (USA) and lead author of the study
Now scientists want to find out exactly how GJ 1214b formed and where water could have appeared on it.
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