NASA announced that researchers have discovered a new Earth-like exoplanet using the James Webb Space Telescope, marking the telescope’s first discovery of an exoplanet. The telescope was launched in December 2021.
The newly discovered planet is called LHA 475 b, and NASA says it’s “almost exactly the same as ours,” measuring 99 percent of Earth’s diameter. Kevin Stevenson and Jacob Lustig-Yager of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, made the discovery.
“There is no doubt that the planet is there. Webb’s primary data backs that up,” Lustig-Yager said.
“The fact that it’s also a small, rocky planet is impressive for the observatory,” Stevenson added.
NASA’s Mark Clampin said the discovery could “open the door to many future opportunities for studying rocky planet atmospheres” within the Webb telescope’s field of view.
“The Web is bringing us ever closer to a new understanding of terrestrial worlds outside our solar system, and the mission is just beginning,” Clampin said.
Is there life on this new planet, LHA 475 b? It’s too early to tell since researchers don’t even know if it has an atmosphere yet. “The telescope is so sensitive that it can easily detect a range of molecules, but we can’t yet draw definitive conclusions about the planet’s atmosphere,” said Erin May of Johns Hopkins University.
The planet is “several hundred degrees” warmer than Earth, the researchers said. If researchers find clouds around it, then it could be more like Venus, which has a carbon dioxide atmosphere.
Check out NASA’s full description to learn more about the new exoplanet.
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