NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope confirmed its first exoplanet on Thursday, and it is a hot rocky world with a diameter 99 percent the size of Earth and completes an orbit around its star in just two days.
Star LHS 475 is a red dwarf around 41 light years away from earth. Using Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), astronomers were able to get clear observations of the planet.
“Webb is bringing us closer and closer to a new understanding of Earth-like worlds outside our solar system, and the mission is only just getting started,” said NASA Astrophysics division director Mark Clampin.
The planet is believed to neither have life, nor habitable conditions as LHS 475 b is closer to its star than any planet in our solar system, and observations point to its surface temperature being a few hundred degrees warmer than Earth. Based on the transmission spectrum data the team has, 475 b could have no atmosphere at all, or it could have one of pure carbon dioxide.
When the team observing 475 b gets another chance to take readings this summer it is said, they hope to better understand the exoplanet’s atmosphere. Though a dead, lifeless rock, Webb’s first exoplanet discovery is good news as the JWST achieved to get decent readings of small, rocky exoplanets akin to Earth.
“This rocky planet confirmation highlights the precision of the [JWST] mission’s instruments,” Johns Hopkins University staff astronomer Kevin Stevenson said.
