The James Webb telescope confirmed the discovery of its first exoplanet

(NASA, ESA, CSA, L. Hustak (STScI) https://go.nasa.gov/3XN8E67)

A team of astronomers led by Jacob Lustig-Yaeger has used the James Webb Space Telescope - JWST to confirm an exoplanet candidate for the first time.

The goal of the observations was an Earth-like rocky planet near a red dwarf close to the Sun.

One of the main areas of research in modern exoplanetology is the search for and determination of atmospheric parameters for rocky planets orbiting dwarf stars.

This is necessary to understand the evolution of such objects and search for potentially habitable planets.

Previously, the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes were engaged in spectroscopic studies of exoplanetary atmospheres.

but now, the more technologically advanced James Webb telescope has replaced the Spitzer.

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EXOPLANET CONFIRMED
Now, Lustig-Yaeger's team from the Johns Hopkins University has reported a new confirmed exoplanet discovery, a first for the James Webb.

This is the planet LHS 475b, which was originally discovered by the TESS space telescope using the transit method.

The JWST observed the exoplanet candidate on August 31 and September 4, 2022 using the NIRSpec near-infrared spectrograph.

The parent star of the planet is a red dwarf of the spectral type M3.5V, with an effective temperature of 3300 kelvins and a radius of 0.2789 solar radii and located 40.7 light years from the Sun.

The planet LHS 475b has a radius of 0.99 Earth radii and has been estimated to have a mass of 0.914 Earth masses, assuming it is a rocky planet.

It makes one orbit around the star in 2.029 days, is located inside the habitable zone and has an equilibrium temperature of 586 kelvins.

The planet is most likely to be in a tidal lock, which means that one of its sides is always facing the star.

The James Webb data has not yet provided a definitive answer about the presence or absence of an atmosphere in LHS 475b

Scientists have only excluded models of a primary atmosphere dominated by hydrogen and a cloudless methane atmosphere.

The exoplanet can have an atmosphere with high-altitude clouds like Venus, a rarefied atmosphere like that of Mars, or not have a pronounced gaseous envelope like Mercury.

It is expected that this year the telescope will observe the third transit of LHS 475b across the disk of the star, this will allow us to refine the current results.

Sources:

• arXiv.org: https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04191
• NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-s-webb-confirms-its-first-exoplanet

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