JWST Archives

NASA/ESA/CSA's James Webb Space Telescope’s exquisite sensitivity and highly specialised instruments are revealing details into how one of Saturn’s moon’s feeds the water supply for the entire system of the ringed planet. Larger image -- ESA/NASA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Webb Space Telescope Maps Surprisingly Large Plume Jetting From Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

by Keith CowingMay 30, 2023May 30, 2023

A water vapour plume from Saturn’s moon Enceladus spanning more than 9600 kilometres — long enough to stretch across the Eurasian continent from Ireland to Japan — has been detected […]

Visualization of field star contaminants in the WASP-96 b SOSS frame. Top: Median stack of the CLEAR exposure. The centroids of the target traces for the first, second, and third orders are indicated via the red, blue, and green solid lines respectively. The 25-pixel extraction boxes are bounded by the dashed lines in each colour (Note that order 3 is not extracted, but included in this plot for completeness). The contaminating order 1 from a field star is indicated in pink and can be clearly seen to intersect the extract box of the target order 1 between pixels ∼1250–1600. Bottom: Median stack of the F277W exposure. The centroids and extraction boxes for orders 1 and 2 are again indicated identically to the above. Multiple field star order 0s are visible in this frame. One, centered at spectral pixel ∼790, clearly intersects the order 1 extraction box (see inset). -- astro-ph.EP

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

Awesome SOSS: Transmission Spectroscopy of WASP-96b with NIRISS/SOSS

by Keith CowingMay 29, 2023May 29, 2023

The future is now – after its long-awaited launch in December 2021, JWST began science operations in July 2022 and is already revolutionizing exoplanet astronomy.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Press Release, Titan

Spitzer IRS Observations of Titan as a Precursor to JWST MIRI Observations

by Keith CowingMay 22, 2023May 22, 2023

In this work we present, for the first time, infrared spectra of Titan from the Spitzer Space Telescope (2004−2009).

The eclipse spectra of various models run in this study. We show: a suite of atmospheric models that are 1-σ consistent with the observation (top left); bare surface models, which are all consistent with the observation (top right); 100 % CO2 atmospheres models at various surface pressures (bottom left); and models with surface pressures of 0.1 bar, varying the compositions (bottom right). The compositions denote that the first species is the dominant species, with the second species in indicated trace amounts. The binned depths at F1500W and F1280W are shown as markers, as well as each bandpass function weighted by the stellar spectrum. We also show, in dashed lines, the eclipse depths resulting from blackbodies at 509 K (blue) and 400 K (red), corresponding to no redistribution (f = 2/3) and full redistribution (f = 1/4), respectively. On the upper right panel, dashed lines indicate grey albedo surface models. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Constraining the Thickness of the Atmosphere of TRAPPIST-1 b from its JWST Secondary Eclipse Observation

by Keith CowingMay 17, 2023May 17, 2023

Recently, the first JWST measurement of thermal emission from a rocky exoplanet was reported. The inferred dayside brightness temperature of TRAPPIST-1 b at 15 μm is consistent with the planet […]

LP 791-18 d, illustrated here, is an Earth-size world about 86 light-years away. The gravitational tug from a more massive planet in the system, shown as a blue dot in the background, may result in internal heating and volcanic eruptions on this exoplanet – as much as Jupiter’s moon Io, the most geologically active body in the Solar System. CREDIT NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KRBwyle)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release

LP 791-18 d: A Terrestrial Exoplanet – With Volcanoes

by Keith CowingMay 17, 2023May 17, 2023

A large international team led by astronomers at the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at Université de Montréal (UdeM) today announced in the journal Nature the discovery of a […]

Spectral data of Comet 238 P/Read and Comet 109 P/Hartley 2 - This graphic presentation of spectral data highlights a key similarity and difference between observations of Comet 238P/Read by the NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in 2022 and observations of Comet 103P/Hartley 2 by NASA’s Deep Impact mission in 2010. Both show a distinct peak in the region of the spectrum associated with water.

Astrochemistry, Comets and Asteroids, Press Release

Webb Finds Water In Rare Main-belt Comet 238 P/Read

by Keith CowingMay 15, 2023May 15, 2023

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has enabled another long-sought scientific breakthrough, this time for Solar System scientists studying the origins of the water that has made life on Earth […]

The MIRI spectrum of J160532. The emission lines of benzene, diacetylene and carbon dioxide can be seen as narrow peaks in the spectrum. Acetylene (C2H2) is so abundant that it gives broad humps in the spectrum. Interestingly, there is no water in the disk. (c) JWST/MIRI/Tabone et al.

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Astronomers Spot Benzene In A Planet-forming Disk Around Star J160532 For The First Time

by Keith CowingMay 11, 2023May 11, 2023

An international team of astronomers including several Dutch researchers has observed the benzene molecule (C6H6) in a planet-forming disk around a young star for the first time.

Artist’s impression of the exoplanet GJ 1214 b, based on the current results. GJ 1214 b is a warm Mini-Neptune with a perpetual day on one side and eternal night on the other. An unusually reflective haze layer in the upper atmosphere makes it difficult to determine the composition of the sheets below. The planet probably has large amounts of water. © NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Webb Reveals Details About Exoplanet GJ 1214 b, A Mini-Neptune

by Keith CowingMay 11, 2023May 11, 2023

After almost 15 years of futile efforts, an international team of researchers involving the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy has determined some of the atmosphere’s properties of the exoplanet GJ […]

This image of the dusty debris disk surrounding the young star Fomalhaut is from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). It reveals three nested belts extending out to 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the star. The inner belts were revealed by Webb for the first time. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Gáspár (University of Arizona). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Comets and Asteroids, Fomalhaut, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Webb Space Telescope Reveals The Complexity Of Fomalhaut’s Evolving Asteroid Belt

by Keith CowingMay 8, 2023September 5, 2025

Astronomers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to image the warm dust around a nearby young star, Fomalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt ever seen outside of […]

Fraction of simulations that lead to an observable moon (warmer than 270K (Section 3)) as a function of its orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity of the moon. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Tidally Heated Exomoons Around ε Eridani b: Observability And Prospects For Characterization

by Keith CowingMay 7, 2023May 7, 2023

Exomoons are expected to orbit gas giant exoplanets just as moons orbit solar system planets. Tidal heating is present in solar system satellites and it can heat up their interior […]

JWST

Webb Space Telescope Maps Surprisingly Large Plume Jetting From Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

Awesome SOSS: Transmission Spectroscopy of WASP-96b with NIRISS/SOSS

Spitzer IRS Observations of Titan as a Precursor to JWST MIRI Observations

Constraining the Thickness of the Atmosphere of TRAPPIST-1 b from its JWST Secondary Eclipse Observation

LP 791-18 d: A Terrestrial Exoplanet – With Volcanoes

Webb Finds Water In Rare Main-belt Comet 238 P/Read

Astronomers Spot Benzene In A Planet-forming Disk Around Star J160532 For The First Time

Webb Reveals Details About Exoplanet GJ 1214 b, A Mini-Neptune

Webb Space Telescope Reveals The Complexity Of Fomalhaut’s Evolving Asteroid Belt

Tidally Heated Exomoons Around ε Eridani b: Observability And Prospects For Characterization

On The Foundations Of Anthropic Reasoning: Implications For Life Across The Universe

NASA Curation Community Conversation Webinar

The Atmospheric Chemistry and Surface Interactions on Mars (ACSIOM) Workshop 2025

An ALMA View On Molecular Complexity: Water, Methanol, And Methyl Formate In The HD 100546 And IRS 48 Disks

The Occurrence of Circumbinary Planets Around TESS M-dwarf Eclipsing Binaries