Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have directly analyzed the surface of a planet beyond our solar system for the first time,
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) exoplanet topic, LHS 3844BThere is a so-called “super-Earth” that is about 30% larger than our planet and located about 50 light years away. Unlike most exoplanet studies, which focus on atmospheres, astronomers analyzed the heat emitted from the planet’s surface.
“Thank you for the amazing sensitivity of JWST“We can detect light coming directly from the surface of this distant rocky planet,” said Laura Kreidberg of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, who served as principal investigator for the JWST observations. statement. “We see a dark, hot, barren rock, with no atmosphere.”
discovered in 2019LHS 3844 b orbits a cool red dwarf star every 11 hours and is tidally locked, meaning one side constantly faces the star while the other remains in the dark. Scientists say daytime temperatures reach about 1,340 degrees Fahrenheit (725 degrees Celsius).
In 2023 and 2024, Kreidberg and his team observed three secondary eclipses as the planet moved behind its star. Using JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), they measured infrared light emitted from the planet’s extremely hot day side and used it to study its surface.
By comparing the signal with known rocks and minerals. Earth, Moon And Mars planetThe team ruled out the possibility of an Earth-like layer rich in silica and granite. The study said such layers typically form through water-driven geological processes and plate tectonics, which recycle rock and allow lighter minerals to rise to the surface.
Instead, the researchers say, the data points to a surface dominated by basalt, a dark volcanic rock rich in iron and magnesium commonly found on the moon and Mercury.
“There is probably very little water on this planet,” study lead author Sebastian Zieba, of the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian in Massachusetts, said in the statement.
The researchers say one possible explanation is that LHS 3844 b has a relatively young surface shaped by recent volcanic activity, where fresh lava has not yet been broken up by micrometeorite impacts. However, such activity is known to release gases such as carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide, which were not detected by MIRI, the study notes.
“If LHS is present in reasonable quantities on 3844 b, MIRI should have detected it,” the statement said. “Still, he found nothing.”
Alternatively, the planet may be covered with a thick layer of dark, fine-grained material formed over a long period of time by radiation and meteorite impacts, similar to the Moon. Mercury. Without an atmosphere, the surface would be especially vulnerable to this process, known as space weathering, which slowly breaks down and darkens the rock.
“This option depends on prolonged geological inactivity, which requires conditions unlike the first scenario,” the statement said.
Follow-up JWST observations are planned to further refine the properties of the planet’s surface and determine whether it is solid rock or loose, weathered material, the study said.
“We are confident that the same technique will allow us to elucidate the crust of LHS 3844 b and the nature of other rocky exoplanets in the future,” Kreidberg said in the same statement.
A study was conducted regarding these results published Monday (May 4) in the journal Nature Astronomy,
