Artist’s impression of the planet Trappist-1b orbiting its star, a red dwarf. NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
DECRYPTION – The exceptional sensitivity of the James Webb Space Telescope made this feat possible. Explanations.
« The goal is not the goal. This is the way. » « The important thing is not the destination, but the journey. » « What counts is not the arrival, it is the quest. » Everyone says it in their own way (Lao-tzu, Robert Louis Stevenson then Orelsan), but the idea remains the same: in life, it’s less the result than the way to get there that matters.
Read alsoTrappist-1, the little star with seven Earths
If the aphorism is perhaps a little less true in science than elsewhere, it undoubtedly applies this time: by showing that the exoplanet Trappist-1b is very probably devoid of atmosphere and that its temperature day side is around 230°C, astronomers have not made a discovery that will revolutionize the world. On the other hand, the very fact of being able to say something so precise about such a tiny and distant world is a landmark performance. This is why the result is published in the journal Nature . Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we have entered the era of characterization…
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