JWST Archives - Page 32 of 93 - Astrobiology

An SwRI-led team used Webb telescope observations (white) to detect methane gas on the distant dwarf planet Makemake. Sharp emission peaks near 3.3 microns reveal methane in the gas phase above Makemake’s surface. A continuum model (cyan) is overlaid for comparison; the gas emission peaks are identified where the observed spectrum rises above the continuum. An artistic rendering of Makemake’s surface is shown in the background. Courtesy of S. Protopapa, I. Wong/SwRI/STScI/NASA/ESA/CSA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Methane Gas Discovered On Makemake

by Keith CowingSeptember 11, 2025

A Southwest Research Institute-led team has reported the first detection of gas on the distant dwarf planet Makemake, using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This discovery makes Makemake only […]

Spectral fits to TRAPPIST-1 e’s stellar-contamination-corrected transmission spectrum. Top: bestfitting forward models for three different partial pressures of N2 and CH4 (solid, dotted, and dashed colored lines) compared to a flat line (dotted black line). Bottom: GP+atmosphere retrievals for the centered log-ratio prior (CLR; blue) and log-uniform priors with a ‘ghost’ background gas (gray) compared to a flat line (dotted black line). All models are plotted binned to the same spectral resolution as the data. The wavelengths of potential CH4 absorption bands are annotated. The corresponding corner plot is in Appendix E. The best-fitting forward models and both retrieval approaches independently identify spectral features tentatively attributed to CH4 features in a potentially N2-rich atmosphere. -- astro-ph.EP

Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

JWST-TST DREAMS: Secondary Atmosphere Constraints for the Habitable Zone Planet TRAPPIST-1 e

by Keith CowingSeptember 9, 2025September 9, 2025

The TRAPPIST-1 system offers one of the best opportunities to characterize temperate terrestrial planets beyond our own solar system. Within the TRAPPIST-1 system, planet e stands out as highly likely […]

White-light TRAPPIST-1 e JWST/NIRSpec PRISM transit light curves. (Top) Datapoints of the transit event (grey; binned at a cadence of 14-seconds) along with the best-fit transit plus systematics model (black; which includes a visit-long slope and a GP; see text for details). The date at which each observation was obtained is indicated at the top of each panel. (Middle) Residuals of the data minus the best-fit light curve model in parts-per-million (ppm); the root-mean-square of the data at this 14-second cadence is indicated for each observation. (Bottom) Light curves at the Hα line (0.656±0.02 µm, in parts per thousand; ppt) at the same cadence as the white-light curves (pale blue points), and binned at 5-minutes (solid blue points); note how a flare is revealed at about −0.25 hr in this light curve as the most likely explanation for the bump in the July 23, 2023 transit event. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

JWST-TST DREAMS: NIRSpec/PRISM Transmission Spectroscopy of the Habitable Zone Planet TRAPPIST-1 e

by Keith CowingSeptember 9, 2025September 9, 2025

TRAPPIST-1 e is one of the very few rocky exoplanets that is both amenable to atmospheric characterization and that resides in the habitable zone of its star — located at […]

Synoptic view of the key performances of the JWST’s instruments and Ariel for transiting exoplanets. Top table summarises the characteristics of instruments and observing modes for JWST. Central left panel: simulations of a WASP-39 b-like exoplanet, used as example of a relatively faint target (Vmag „ 12) optimal for various JWST’s instruments (NIRSpec, NIRISS, MIRI) and observable by Ariel in Tier 2. Bottom left panel: simulation of a HD189733 b-like exoplanet, used as example of a bright target (Vmag „ 7.7) observable with JWST NIRCam and optimal for Ariel in Tier 3. JWST’s noise is obtained with the ExoCTK Pandexo tool (Batalha et al., 2017), while the Ariel’s noise is estimated using the ArielRad simulator (Mugnai et al., 2020). -- astro-ph.IM

Ariel Mission, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

On The Synergetic Use Of Ariel And JWST For Exoplanet Atmospheric Science

by Keith CowingSeptember 9, 2025February 15, 2026

This white paper explores the potential for strategic synergies between the JWST and the Ariel telescopes, two flagship observatories poised to revolutionise the study of exoplanet atmospheres.

NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has provided a fantastic new view of IRAS 04302+2247, a planet-forming disc located about 525 light-years away in a dark cloud within the Taurus star-forming region. Larger image

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Interstellar, Status Report

Watching Planet Formation In The IRAS 04302+2247 Disc

by Keith CowingSeptember 8, 2025September 8, 2025

With Webb, researchers can study the properties and growth of dust grains within protoplanetary discs like this one, shedding light on the earliest stages of planet formation.

The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d -- ESA

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

There Is No Earth-like Atmosphere On TRAPPIST-1 d

by Keith CowingSeptember 5, 2025September 5, 2025

The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d intrigues astronomers looking for possibly habitable worlds beyond our solar system because it is similar in size to Earth, rocky, and resides in an area around […]

Performance of our neural networks after the training with the first training+validation split, with respect to the spectra included in the validation subset. The plots show the predicted versus true labeled values for the molecular fractions and temperature. Left panels: Molecular fractions of ice spectra. Each ice spectrum in the validation subset (with a certain composition and temperature) corresponds to six circles in the plot: one for each targeted molecule (denoted by colours). The sizes of the circles indicate the temperature of the ice. The bottom panel reports the difference between the predicted molecular fraction and the labeled value from the experiment. Right panels: Temperature of ice spectra, represented by each circle. Again, the bottom panel reports the difference between the predicted and the labeled values.-- astro-ph.IM

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

A Fast Machine Learning Tool To Predict The Composition Of Astronomical Ices From Infrared Absorption Spectra

by Keith CowingSeptember 5, 2025September 5, 2025

Current observations taken by James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) allow us to observe the absorption features of icy mantles that cover interstellar dust grains, which are mainly composed of H2O, […]

Exoplanets under consideration for the Rocky Worlds DDT. Planets above the cosmic shoreline are expected to have lost their atmosphere. The circled exoplanets have already been observed in emission during JWST’s first three cycles. The exoplanets for which the observations concluded there is no atmosphere are in red. We also added the Solar System terrestrial planets. The XUV irradiation is computed from Zahnle & Catling (2017). -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Constraints On The Possible Atmospheres On TRAPPIST-1 b: Insights From 3D Climate Modeling

by Keith CowingSeptember 3, 2025September 18, 2025

JWST observations of the secondary eclipse of TRAPPIST-1 b at 12.8 and 15 microns revealed a very bright dayside. These measurements are consistent with an absence of atmosphere. Previous 1D […]

Range of best-fit phase curve and eclipse models for TRAPPIST-1 b and c. The detrended data are shown with gray dots and binned data with black dots. Red curves show the light curve model for each JWST program that observed TRAPPIST-1 b and c at 15µm using MIRI F1500W; the shading spans the range of models drawn from the posterior distribution of the day flux, night flux and phase offset for planets b and c from Analysis # 1 at 2-σ. The top panel shows the phase curve from GO 3077; the second row displays the five visits from GO 1177 (PI: Greene); and the third row presents the four visits from GO 2304 (PI: Kreidberg), along with a zoom-in on the double occultation observed in GO 3077. The expected transit and eclipse timings for each planet from [19] are shown in vertical dashed and plain lines respectively (purple for b, orange for c, and green for g). -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

First JWST Thermal Phase Curves Of Temperate Terrestrial Exoplanets Reveal No Thick Atmosphere Around TRAPPIST-1 b and c

by Keith CowingSeptember 3, 2025September 3, 2025

We report JWST/MIRI 15 μm phase curves of TRAPPIST-1 b and c, revealing thermal emission consistent with their irradiation levels, assuming no efficient heat redistribution.

Envelope composition in the H–He–C–N–O–Si chemical system of TOI-421b (𝑅MEB = 1.65𝑅⊕, 𝑅𝑃 = 2.64𝑅⊕, 𝑀𝑃 = 6.7𝑀⊕, 𝑇MEB = 3000 K) as a function of H mass fraction. Elemental budgets, reactions, gas solubility laws, and real gas equations are described in Sect. 2. MEB partial pressures of the considered gases for (a) 1× solar metallicity and 100% mantle melt (IW–6.2 to IW–5.7), (b) 100× solar metallicity and 100% mantle melt (IW–5.5 to IW–5.2), (c) 1× solar metallicity and 1% mantle melt (IW–3.4 to IW–3.1), and (d) 100× solar metallicity and 1% mantle melt (IW–2.3 to IW–1.6). Full range of MEB partial pressures is shown in Fig. A2. The corresponding partitioning of volatile elements in magma and real gas fugacity coefficients are given in Fig. B1 and Fig. B2, respectively. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Press Release

Silane-Methane Competition in Sub-Neptune Atmospheres As A Diagnostic Of Metallicity And Magma Oceans

by Keith CowingSeptember 1, 2025September 1, 2025

The James Webb Space Telescope is characterising the atmospheres of sub-Neptunes. The presence of magma oceans on sub-Neptunes is expected to strongly alter the chemistry of their envelopes (100 bar-100 […]