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Where did we come from? Are we alone? Webb looks for answers
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On Tuesday, NASA and ESA unveiled several photos taken by the Cosmic launched in December last year Telescope James Webb. The first is the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, along with the more distant background galaxies (this is the farthest infrared image ever taken).
The following photos show the planetary nebula NGC 3132, a group of galaxies called the Stephan’s Quintet and the emission nebula NGC 3324. However, this is not the end, because scientists also boasted about the results of the exoplanet’s research carried out with the Webb telescope.
The James Webb telescope found water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet
21 On June, researchers focused the Webb mirror on the exoplanet WASP-96 b in the Milky Way, 1,150 light-years from Earth for just over 6 hours. This is one of 5 thousand. confirmed extrasolar planets present in our galaxy. He is a gas giant. It has a diameter of 20 percent. larger than Jupiter’s diameter, but twice less massive.
WASP-96 b also orbits its star – which is quite similar to the Sun – at a very short distance, as much as 9 times smaller than the average distance between Mercury and our star. It is not surprising then that the full cycle (a year) lasts only 3.5 Earth days, and it is average temperature on the planet it is over 540 degrees Celsius.
The gas giant, also known as “hot Jupiter”, is of course an extremely hostile place for the development of life. However, the planet’s rarefied atmosphere and short orbital period are a treat for astronomers. Especially that the object passes against the background (transit) of its star every 3.5 days.
The researchers used this fact to obtain a spectrum of the WASP-96b atmosphere using the Webb telescope – specifically its Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument. gases. This is because different substances absorb electromagnetic waves of particular lengths, thanks to which it is possible to find out which elements or compounds are present in the gas envelope of WASP-96 b.
