The James Webb Space Telescope plans to explore strange, new rocky worlds with unprecedented detail.
The telescope’s scientific consortium has an ambitious program to study the geology of these small planets from “50 light-years”, a statement said on Thursday (May 26th). The work will be a big job for the new observatory, which should be out of service in a few weeks.
Rocky planets are more difficult to see than gas giants in current telescopic technology due to the relative brightness of the smaller star-shaped planets and their relatively small size. But the powerful mirror and Web’s location in deep space must allow him to explore two planets slightly larger than Earth, known as the “super-Earths.”
None of these worlds are inhabitable as we know them, but their study can still be evidence of future in-depth research on planets like ours. The two planets highlighted by Webb include the super hot, lava-covered 55 Cancri e and LHS 3844 b, which lacks a significant atmosphere.
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Illustration comparing two rocky exoplanets with Earth and Neptune. In order of appearance, from left to right, are Earth (based on data from the Deep Space Climate Observatory), LHS 3844 b (illustration), 55 Cancri e (illustration) and Neptune (based on data from Voyager 2). (Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Dani Player (STScI)) (opens in a new section)
55 Cancri orbits its parent star a narrow 1.5 million miles (2.4 million km), about four percent of the relative distance between Mercury and the sun.
Circling its star only once every 18 hours, the planet has temperatures on the surface of the blast furnace above the melting point of most types of rocks. Scientists also suggest that the planet is tidal locked to the star, which means that one side is always facing the scorching sun, although observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that the hottest zone may be slightly shifted.
Scientists say the compensated heat may be due to a dense atmosphere that can carry heat around the planet, or because it rains lava at night in a process that removes heat from the atmosphere. (Night lava also suggests a day-night cycle, which may be due to a 3: 2 resonance or three rotations of every two orbits we see on Mercury in our own solar system.)
Two teams will test these hypotheses: one led by researcher Renou Hu of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will study the planet’s heat emissions for signs of the atmosphere, while a second team led by Alexis Brandecker, an associate professor at Stockholm University, will measure heat. radiation from the illuminated side of 55 Cancri e.
The LHS 3844 b is also a close orbiter that orbits its parent star only once every 11 hours. However, the star is smaller and cooler than the 55 Cancri e. So the surface of the planet is probably much cooler, and Spitzer’s observations show that there is probably no significant atmosphere on the planet.
A team led by astronomer Laura Kreidberg of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy hopes to capture a signal from the surface using spectroscopy, in which different wavelengths of light suggest different elements. The spectra of heat radiation from daylight on the planet will be compared with known rocks such as basalt and granite to see if they can bring the composition to the surface.
“Both studies will give us fantastic new perspectives on Earth-like planets in general, helping us learn what the early Earth was like when it was as hot as it is today,” Kreidberg said in the same statement.
Webb is currently working through end-of-life commissioning procedures, such as tracking targets in the solar system and switching between hotter and colder attitudes to test the strength of the mirror and the alignment of the instrument. The $ 10 billion observatory is due to complete its commissioning around June and move on to its first cycle of observations shortly thereafter.
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