2023-06-05 11:30:43
Thanks to the sensitivity of its instruments, NASA’s space telescope, James Webb detected traces of water vapor in the ultra-hot atmosphere of an exoplanet.
«The spectrum of the planet’s atmosphere clearly shows multiple small but precisely measured aquatic elements present despite extreme temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,700 degrees Celsius)“, explains the Nasa. Astronomers identified a new exoplanet in 2009, which they named WASP-18b. This extraterrestrial world, located 400 light years from Earth, is ten times the mass of Jupiter.
The James Webb Telescope has performed thermal mapping of WASP-18 b (the first for the NASA telescope) and determined that the temperature of its atmosphere is around 2,700 degrees C°. And despite this extreme heat which makes water molecules explode, the sensitivity of James Webb’s instruments was able to detect traces of water vapour.
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Using these valuable results, the researchers created a luminosity map, tracing the glow from the hot regions of WASP-18b as the exoplanet slipped behind its star and reappeared.
They think that there must be a mechanism that prevents the distribution of heat around the globe. “One possible explanation is that this planet has a strong magnetic field, which would be an exciting discovery! says Ryan Challener of the University of Michigan and co-author of the study.
«By analyzing the spectrum of WASP-18b, we not only learn regarding the different molecules that can be found in its atmosphere, but also regarding how it was formed. We find from our observations that the composition of WASP-18 b is very similar to that of its star, which means that it most likely formed from the residual gas that was present just following the birth of the star. ‘star», explains Louis-Philippe Coulombe, from the University of Montreal and main author of the scientific article.
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