Webb Telescope Finds a (Hot) Earth-Sized Planet With an Atmosphere (apnews.com) 28
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Associated Press:
A thick atmosphere has been detected around a planet that's twice as big as Earth in a nearby solar system, researchers reported Wednesday.
The so-called super Earth — known as 55 Cancri e — is among the few rocky planets outside our solar system with a significant atmosphere, wrapped in a blanket of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The exact amounts are unclear. Earth's atmosphere is a blend of nitrogen, oxygen, argon and other gases. "It's probably the firmest evidence yet that this planet has an atmosphere," said Ian Crossfield, an astronomer at the University of Kansas who studies exoplanets and was not involved with the research.
The research was published in the journal Nature.
"The boiling temperatures on this planet — which can reach as hot as 4,200 degrees Fahrenheit (2,300 degrees Celsius) — mean that it is unlikely to host life," the article points out.
"Instead, scientists say the discovery is a promising sign that other such rocky planets with thick atmospheres could exist that may be more hospitable."
The so-called super Earth — known as 55 Cancri e — is among the few rocky planets outside our solar system with a significant atmosphere, wrapped in a blanket of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The exact amounts are unclear. Earth's atmosphere is a blend of nitrogen, oxygen, argon and other gases. "It's probably the firmest evidence yet that this planet has an atmosphere," said Ian Crossfield, an astronomer at the University of Kansas who studies exoplanets and was not involved with the research.
The research was published in the journal Nature.
"The boiling temperatures on this planet — which can reach as hot as 4,200 degrees Fahrenheit (2,300 degrees Celsius) — mean that it is unlikely to host life," the article points out.
"Instead, scientists say the discovery is a promising sign that other such rocky planets with thick atmospheres could exist that may be more hospitable."
Temperatures as hot as 2,300 degrees Celsius (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like the perfect place to send all of our politicians.
Who else would you like to send ? Comments below please.
It's more like a big Venus, not Earth. (Score:1)
Musk and Zuck!
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Marketing executives? Yes!
Management consultants? Hell yes!
Telephone sanitizers? Nah, I think we've learned the value of telephone sanitizers in the past few years.
Super Earth? (Score:2)
Super Venus, more like.
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You cannot get there from here.
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Oh I'm pretty sure you can. The next couple of billion years will probably boil the oceans (it is a bit unpredictable on the timing, because there are lots of feedback loops in the Earth's atmosphere, and as stars move along the Main Sequence towards red-giant state, they tend to get more variable too) and leave the planet as habitable as Venus for several billion years before the Sun goes full-on red giant. Whether the Earth gets "swallowed by the Sun" is also a bit uncertain
Hot Earth-Sized Planet With an Atmosphere (Score:1)
That is just your mom.
Nice improvement (Score:3)
We can now do a atmospheric spectroscopic analysis of a hot rocky world 51 ly away. As telescopes and data analysis improves we're going to eventually find smaller worlds, further from their stars. Maybe eventually we'll find one with an odd oxygen imbalance and temperatures suitable for liquid water on its surface.
That'll be an amazing day.
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It is a hypothesis that free oxygen in the atmosphere is necessary for the development of "complex" (whatever the fuck that means) life. As a geologist with a close eye on the fossil record of metazoans on Earth, I'm far less convinced. Back in the early parts of the "great oxidation event" at about 2.1 Gyr BP, there were macroscopic organisms (now preserved in the Francevilli
Long way to the shops. (Score:2)
40 light-years away is 'nearby'? That is a massive distance. maybe use warp 6.
Oddly comical (Score:3)
Whenever these science nugget stories come around, the 'more funding', 'don't cut our budget', 'it;s invaluable research', 'it could cure ' stories appear.
Do these stories need to get pumped out to justify and expand budgets in the government and academia?
NASA, the federal government should have a shared funding model gradually getting telescope users to rent and pay for more and more of the budget of these research facilities. And why does every science story allude to, blame or call a crisis on climate as a distraction from the rest of the article? Advertising 101?
https://spacenews.com/astronom... [spacenews.com]
"Astronomers criticize proposed space telescope budget cuts " Space News March 21, 2024
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If the U.S. fails to invest in science, we will become the scientific backwater of which some dream. If the science agencies did not report their results, people like you would start that incessant anti-science whine of they only exist for themselves.
And using a "shared funding model" ignores that companies will only invest in something that has a demonstrated payoff in the next year or two. They will not fund anything that takes the time frame science requires to return its benefits. Think of lasers and ho
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Think of lasers and how long it took for them to become a necessity. Science 101?
Think of how space exploration budgets could be actually justified if we had warp drive engines just laying around waiting for an application.
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Do these stories need to get pumped out to justify and expand budgets in the government and academia? /facepalm
No, they are just bored. Otherwise they would keep the findings a secret, to fire some conspiracy theories: why is Webb never publishing anything" What did they find out there which they are hiding from us?
Could it be that scientists simply do science and publish what they find? Oh noes ... they are money grabbers, robbers, they hold the gun of "we do not publish" at your head and torture money out
It is a proof of Hell! (with clouds?) (Score:2)
Finally, cloudy Hell discovered. Now let's only find paradise.
This planet goes arounf fast - 0.7 day year?
https://science.nasa.gov/exopl... [nasa.gov]
Earth-Sized? (Score:3)
From the Headline:
Earth-Sized Planet
From TFS:
a planet that's twice as big as Earth
I guess out there, 1 = 2
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1 = 2
*for large values of 1 and small values of 2.
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In astronomy, same order of magnitude is usually close enough to say things are equal.
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In astronomy, same order of magnitude is usually close enough to say things are equal.
Brought to you by scientists still using an Pentium processor.
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It gets worse. FTFA (Article/ Abstract) :
Just to put that into a Solar system context - that's a size and mass of planet we don't have, though it is approximately what Brown & Batygin predict for "Planet 9". (The now discarded "Planet 9" of "Pluto/Charon" masses about 1/600 of Earth, has 1/6 the diameter (so 1/216th the volume and 1/3 the density) and is completely contro
Not likely to support "our kind of life"... (Score:2)
These articles frequently make the disclaimer due to whatever factor that such worlds are not going to sustain life but I find that somewhat obtuse. We already have examples of bacteria that live on our own planet in extreme environments such as undersea volcanic fissures. There is nothing to say life can't exist in similar extreme environments. It could be totally unfamiliar to us but that doesn't mean it's not there.
The search for a "friendly" world we could visit someday is a completely different questio