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| Science & Technology |
| Webb Telescope Observations Suggest Habitable Planets May Be Rarer Than Previously Thought |
| 2023-06-22 |
| [GIZMADO] About 40 light-years from Earth, a set of seven Earth-sized planets are orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1. Now, scientists studying the system with the Webb Space Telescope have found one of them, TRAPPIST-1 c, either lacks an atmosphere or has a very thin one, indicating that habitable planets may be fewer and farther between in the universe. The observations follow the Webb investigation of TRAPPIST-1 b, another world in the set. TRAPPIST-1 b also lacked an atmosphere, or the envelope of gasses that surround some planets. If an atmosphere does in fact exist around TRAPPIST-1 c, the researchers say it’s likely to be thin, cloudless, and mostly composed of carbon dioxide, according to the Space Telescope Science Institute release. Neither world is in the TRAPPIST system’s habitable (or Goldilocks) zone, so-named to being the vicinity far enough from (about also near enough to) the host star that it will have livable temperatures. TRAPPIST-1 c orbits its host star at a distance of roughly 1.5 million miles (2.41 million kilometers). TRAPPIST-1 b, c, and d, are too close to their star to be in the system’s habitable zone, according to NASA, but the absence of atmospheres around the former two affirm that they are uninhabitable. Atmospheres are deemed crucial for life to exist on the surface (as opposed to dwelling in subterranean oceans, such as those found on Saturn’s moon Enceladus or Jupiter’s moon Europa). Besides providing air to breathe, planetary atmospheres allow worlds to retain and distribute heat they receive from their stars. So instead of having a world that’s hundreds of degrees on its dayside and well below freezing on the other, a planet can maintain a more regular temperature across its surface. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #1 In the final analysis, all the estimates are WAG's (wild assed guess). It depends on what you want to believe. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2023-06-22 13:44 |