JWST Archives

The black line is the observed spectrum of WISE 035934.06-540154.6 from Beiler et al. (2023). Black points represent their photometric measurements. The pink line and dots are the best fit Sonora model spectrum and photometry, from Beiler et al. The blue line and data points are the spectrum and photometry from the best fit model of the ATMO2020++ grid. The green line is the same model where PH3 has been removed from the atmospheric composition. The ATMO2020++ model is scaled by the known distance to WISE 0359 (Kirkpatrick et al. 2021) and the radius inferred from evolutionary models (Marley et al. 2021), and has not been scaled to fit. Principal opacity species are indicated. The lower panel shows the difference between the observed spectrum and the spectra generated by the three models (note the difference in y-axis scale in the upper and lower panels). The inset shows the near-infrared flux region. See Section 3 for discussion. -- astro-ph.SR

Astrochemistry, Brown Dwarfs, Status Report

The First Y Dwarf Data From JWST Show That Dynamic and Diabatic Processes Regulate Cold Brown Dwarf Atmospheres

by Keith CowingOctober 1, 2023October 1, 2023

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is now observing Y dwarfs, the coldest known brown dwarfs, with effective temperatures T_eff <= 475 K.

Maps of the CO2 n3 band area and the ratio between its two peaks. The disk of Europa is indicated by the black circles in both panels and centered at 2.7°N and 93°W. Gray dashed lines indicate the 45°W, 90°W, and 135°W meridians and the 60°S, 30°S, 0°N, 30°N, and 60°N parallels. The large-scale chaos regions Tara Regio (~10ºS, 75ºW) and Powys Regio (~0ºS, 150ºW) are outlined in black within the disk using the boundaries as defined by (11). (A) Mapped band area (indicated by the color bar) of the entire n3 CO2 band. The strongest absorption occurs in Tara Regio, the region of disrupted terrain centered to the right of the 90°W meridian. CO2 also appears concentrated in parts of the chaos region Powys Regio, which is shown on the left portion of the disk. (B) The mapped ratio between the 4.25-µm and 4.27-µm peaks within the CO2 band. The spatial pixels outlined in white mark the locations of the spectra shown in Figure 1. The 4.25-µm peak is the stronger of the two within the chaos terrain and at low latitudes, while the 4.27-µm peak is stronger in the colder, more ice-rich northern latitudes. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Distribution Of CO2 On Europa Indicates An Internal Source Of Carbon

by Keith CowingSeptember 23, 2023September 23, 2023

Jupiter’s moon Europa has a subsurface ocean, the chemistry of which is largely unknown. Carbon dioxide (CO2) has previously been detected on the surface of Europa, but it was not […]

Webb’s NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) captured this picture of the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Webb identified carbon dioxide on the icy surface of Europa that likely originated in the moon’s subsurface ocean.

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Webb Finds A Carbon Source On The Surface Of Europa

by Keith CowingSeptember 21, 2023September 21, 2023

Jupiter’s moon Europa is one of a handful of worlds in our Solar System that could potentially harbour conditions suitable for life. Previous research has shown that beneath its water-ice […]

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Carbon-bearing Molecules In A Possible Hycean Atmosphere

by Keith CowingSeptember 17, 2023September 17, 2023

The search for habitable environments and biomarkers in exoplanetary atmospheres is the holy grail of exoplanet science. The detection of atmospheric signatures of habitable Earth-like exoplanets is challenging due to […]

Spectroscopic and broadband NIRCam F322W2 lightcurves of the transit and eclipse of WASP-80b. The raw spectroscopic transit (a) and eclipse (b) lightcurves after spectral binning (0.0146 µm bins) but without any temporal binning. The transit and eclipse’s second and third contact points are indicated with red lines above the plots. The broadband (2.420–4.025 µm) transit (c) and eclipse (d) lightcurves are shown in gray without error bars. The transit and eclipse’s second and third contact points are indicated with red vertical lines. Black points with 1σ error bars show temporally binned data with a cadence of 5 minutes; note that the error bars in panel c are smaller than the point size. BJDTDB is the date in the Barycentric Julian Date in the Barycentric Dynamical Time system. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Methane Throughout The Atmosphere Of The Warm Exoplanet WASP-80b

by Keith CowingSeptember 11, 2023September 11, 2023

The abundances of major carbon and oxygen bearing gases in the atmospheres of giant exoplanets provide insights into atmospheric chemistry and planet formation processes.

This artist’s concept shows what exoplanet K2-18 b could look like based on science data. K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone and lies 120 light-years from Earth. A new investigation with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into K2-18 b has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide. The abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia, support the hypothesis that there may be a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in K2-18 b. Credits: Illustration: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University)

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

Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18 b

by Keith CowingSeptember 11, 2023September 11, 2023

A new investigation with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and […]

(a) Cross-correlation function (CCF) of the WASP39b transmission spectrum with the 12C 16O (98.7%) + 13C 16O (1.3%) template. We compare the CCFs resulting from the self cross-correlation of the template (light blue area) and the spectrum (dark blue area), which were scaled arbitrarily. (b) Distribution of the best-fit Gaussian parameters (significance of the central peak, Speak, the central peak velocity, RVpeak, and the FWHM of the distribution of velocities, σRVs) retrieved from the sampled transmission spectra that were randomly generated following a Gaussian distribution centered in the observed transmission spectrum and considering the errors as the Gaussian standard deviation in each point. We performed 30000 iterations. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Detection of Carbon Monoxide in the Atmosphere of WASP-39b Applying Standard Cross-Correlation Techniques to JWST NIRSpec G395H Data

by Keith CowingSeptember 6, 2023September 6, 2023

Carbon monoxide was recently reported in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-39b using the NIRSpec PRISM transit observation of this planet, collected as part of the JWST Transiting Exoplanet […]

Earth’s observed cloud-free transit transmission spectrum from Macdonald & Cowan (2019) binned to a resolution of ∆λ = 0.02 µm and fit using smarter. The data are shown in black, the best-fitting model (Model 1) spectrum is shown in white and blue, and various colors are used to indicate each molecule’s contribution to the model spectrum. The most prominent features are due to CO2 and O3, but a rich diversity of habitability indicators, biosignatures, and technosignatures are present. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

Earth As A Transiting Exoplanet: A Validation Of Transmission Spectroscopy And Atmospheric Retrieval Methodologies For Terrestrial Exoplanets

by Keith CowingAugust 29, 2023August 29, 2023

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will enable the search for and characterization of terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres in the habitable zone via transmission spectroscopy.

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Barlow (University College London), N. Cox (ACRI-ST), R. Wesson (Cardiff University) larger image

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Webb Reveals Structure And Astrochemistry Of The Ring Nebula

by Keith CowingAugust 24, 2023

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has observed the well-known Ring Nebula in unprecedented detail. Formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, the […]

Results of the transit injection-and-recovery tests performed on the TESS (upper panel) and CHEOPS (lower panel) data to assess the detectability of potential additional transiting planets in the TOI-178 system. For both panels, the red stars show the locations of the 6 known planets in the system. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Refining The Properties Of The TOI-178 System With CHEOPS And TESS

by Keith CowingAugust 23, 2023August 23, 2023

The TOI-178 system consists of a nearby late K-dwarf transited by six planets in the super-Earth to mini-Neptune regime, with orbital periods between 1.9 and 20.7 days.

JWST

The First Y Dwarf Data From JWST Show That Dynamic and Diabatic Processes Regulate Cold Brown Dwarf Atmospheres

The Distribution Of CO2 On Europa Indicates An Internal Source Of Carbon

Webb Finds A Carbon Source On The Surface Of Europa

Carbon-bearing Molecules In A Possible Hycean Atmosphere

Methane Throughout The Atmosphere Of The Warm Exoplanet WASP-80b

Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18 b

Detection of Carbon Monoxide in the Atmosphere of WASP-39b Applying Standard Cross-Correlation Techniques to JWST NIRSpec G395H Data

Earth As A Transiting Exoplanet: A Validation Of Transmission Spectroscopy And Atmospheric Retrieval Methodologies For Terrestrial Exoplanets

Webb Reveals Structure And Astrochemistry Of The Ring Nebula

Refining The Properties Of The TOI-178 System With CHEOPS And TESS

Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 20 Oct 2026: Wheels Down In Cape Town

Astrobiology Primer

The Evolution Of Oxygen, Temperature, And Marine Aerobic Habitat For Animals Over The Last Billion Years Of Earth History

Icy Ocean Planet Recon: Saildrone Research Fleet To Circle Antarctica For 5 Years

Water As We’ve Never Known It: Testing Water Beyond Earth-like Conditions