2023-09-11 22:03:02
The James-Webb Space Telescope continues its harvest of interesting results. An international team used the machine to study the atmosphere of an exoplanet, a planet that revolves around a star other than the Sun, an ocean world which notably contains carbon dioxide.
Published on: 09/11/2023 – 22:03
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K2-18b is a planet that has no equivalent in our solar system. Bigger than the Earth, smaller than Neptune, it orbits in the habitable zone of its star, that is to say neither too close nor too far. It would therefore have a temperature compatible with the presence of liquid water on its surface.
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The hypothesis has been reinforced since we robbed the James Webb space telescope above. The machine analyzed its atmosphere. There is methane, carbon dioxide, no ammonia. For chemists, all of this is compatible with a world covered in oceans.
A presence of life?
Even more interesting, although it requires confirmation, James-Webb may also have observed dimethyl sulfide, a molecule also found in the Earth’s atmosphere. Most of it is produced in marine environments by phytoplankton.
Did we find a marker of a life presence on K2-18b? As always, caution is warranted and all of these observations require confirmation. The analysis is all the more complicated as there is no analog to this type of planet around the Sun. The space telescope has so far turned its eyes on this world twice, and many more are planned.
The Webb telescope has detected carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18 b, a potentially habitable world over 8 times bigger than Earth. Webb’s data suggests the planet might be covered in ocean, with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere: pic.twitter.com/yoXF3flsUl
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) September 11, 2023
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