James Webb telescope: breakthrough in search for habitable worlds

Researchers believe they are about to make a major breakthrough in the search for other worlds that could harbor life. That’s according to a report after the James Webb Space Telescope spotted water vapor on an alien planet.

Astronomers have made an unusual discovery with the James Webb Space Telescope. Images of the rocky planet GJ 486 b clearly show water vapor on the exoplanet – only where the vapor comes from is currently completely unclear.

Is there an atmosphere around GJ 486 b?

The water vapor could indicate the presence of an atmosphere around GJ 486 b. This is a discovery that could be important in the search for habitable worlds outside the solar system.

The challenge now is to determine whether the water vapor could have come from the planet’s host star or from the planet itself. At present, scientists cannot say whether the water is part of the planet’s atmosphere.

“Water vapor in an atmosphere on a hot, rocky planet would be a major breakthrough for exoplanet research,” said Kevin Stevenson, principal investigator in the discovery and a researcher at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in a statement. “But we have to be careful and make sure the star isn’t the culprit.”

The astronomers aim to find out whether a rocky planet in such a harsh environment could form an atmosphere and preserve it long enough for life to develop – a process that has taken about a billion years on Earth. The exoplanet in question, GJ 486 b, orbits a red dwarf star 26 light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It is now being studied further and explored in more detail with the help of new data.

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Space, Astronautics, Nasa, Satellite, Solar, Telescope, Solar Cell, Solar Panel, James Webb, Solar Panel, James Webb Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Mirror