admin The James Webb Space Telescope successfully developed by NASA has taken a new step forward with the discovery of the steam-filled atmosphere of the giant Gliese 1214b.
According to Sci-News, the planet is only 52 light-years away and orbits a red dwarf star in the constellation Ophiuchus, so the discovery is very interesting. The planet, first observed by Project MEarth in 2009, is 2.9 times larger than Earth’s in diameter, eight times as massive as her, and contains elements similar to Neptune in our solar system.
Initially, it was not considered interesting, as it seemed too hot to live in from that distance, nor could liquid water enter it. But James Webb’s “magic eye” changed a lot.
Most importantly, it still contains water in the form of evaporation, making up most of the atmosphere. According to University of Maryland astronomer Eliza Kempton, the planet is completely covered in some kind of fog, a thick layer of clouds.
“If this planet is truly water-rich, it could be a watery world with large amounts of water and ice material present during its formation,” he said. Kempton. Scientists also used a new method to map heat, and found that the average daytime temperature was 279 degrees Celsius and the average nighttime temperature was 165 degrees Celsius, much lower than previously thought. bottom. Such large changes can only be caused by atmospheric water or dense methane.
The temperatures above are too hot for humans, but scientists no longer confirm that it is a dead planet. Because recent discoveries say nothing about extreme life directly on Earth or evidence of life on the extremely hot Venus. In fact, on Mars or Venus, scientists suggest that the planets were likely once watery worlds where life-like things might have existed and then went extinct. New discoveries will continue to place this exciting world under the “special attention” of scientists. A study on the waters of Gliese 1214b was published in his Nature.
