Exoplanets – worlds of other suns

[firestar464]

Here's a better source from Earth.com:

https://www.earth.com/news/planet-k2-18 ... d-by-life/

I unfortunately couldn't find a source for the timeframe.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Clouds blanket the night side of the hot exoplanet WASP-43b
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-clouds-bl ... e-hot.html
by Max Planck Society

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of astronomers, including scientists from MPIA, constructed a global temperature map of the hot, gas giant exoplanet WASP-43b. The nearby parent star perpetually illuminates one hemisphere, raising temperatures to a blistering 1250°C. Meanwhile, eternal night shrouds the opposite side.

Violent winds transport the searing hot air to the nightside, where it cools to 600°C, allowing clouds to form and blanket the entire hemisphere. These tempests impair chemical reactions so much that methane can barely form, even though it should be abundant under calmer conditions.

Hot Jupiters are extreme gas giant exoplanets that orbit their host stars in close proximity, leading to several exotic properties regarding temperature, density, composition, chemistry, and weather. With the advent of groundbreakingly sensitive telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have begun to study their atmospheres in great detail.

An international collaboration of astronomers, the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Early Release Science (JTEC-ERS) team, observed the hot Jupiter WASP-43b with JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to study its climate.

[weatheriscool]

Citizen scientists help discover record-breaking exoplanet in binary star system
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-citizen-s ... -star.html
by Mara Johnson-Groh, Simons Foundation

A team of astronomers and citizen scientists has discovered a planet in the habitable zone of an unusual star system, including two stars and potentially another exoplanet.

The planet hunters spotted the Neptune-like planet as it crossed in front of its host star, temporarily dimming the star's light in a way akin to a solar eclipse on Earth. This "transit method" usually identifies planets with tight orbits, as they are more likely to follow paths that put them between Earth and their host star and, when following such paths, move into light-blocking positions more frequently. That's why this newly discovered planet is considered unusually far out, with the planet taking 272 days to lap its star.

[weatheriscool]

Webb Telescope Spots Atmosphere on Super-Hot Super-Earth
This is the best evidence to date for an atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet.
By Ryan Whitwam May 10, 2024

We know the universe is teeming with exoplanets, some vaguely Earth-like. But do any of those worlds have atmospheres? To answer that question, the James Webb Space Telescope has turned its infrared eye toward a nearby sun-like star known as 55 Cancri. The newly published research from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other outfits presents the best evidence yet of an atmosphere clinging to a super-Earth. It's not someplace you'd like to visit, though.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/web ... uper-earth

[weatheriscool]

The Detection of a Possible Exoplanet Orbiting KIC 1718360 Using Machine Learning
https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.05282
Quote :

This paper presents the detection of a periodic dimming event in the lightcurve of the G1.5IV-V type star KIC 1718360. This is based on visible-light observations conducted by both the TESS and Kepler space telescopes. Analysis of the data points toward a possible orbiting body with a radius of approximately 1.048 Earth Radii with a period of 2.938 days, as well as a semi-major axis of 0.04 AU. The initial observation was made in Kepler Quarter 16 data using the One-Class SVM machine learning method. Subsequent observations by the TESS space telescope corroborate these findings. While still requiring further data to validate, these results may contribute to a growing body of data of Earthlike planets with short-period orbits.