{"id":159130,"date":"2024-10-22T17:09:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T17:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/22\/jwst-spots-the-first-known-steam-world\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T17:09:03","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T17:09:03","slug":"jwst-spots-the-first-known-steam-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/22\/jwst-spots-the-first-known-steam-world\/","title":{"rendered":"JWST spots the first known &#8216;steam world&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/101524_lg_steam-world_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"JWST spots the first known &#8216;steam world&#8217;\" title=\"JWST spots the first known &#8216;steam world&#8217;\" \/><\/div> \r\n<br><br><div data-component=\"video-embed\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n<p>This exoplanet\u2019s atmosphere is going full steam ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A planet beyond our solar system called GJ 9827d has an atmosphere composed almost completely of hot water molecules, astronomers report in the <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/2041-8213\/ad6f00#apjlad6f00s8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/em><\/a> October 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re using the term \u2018steam world,\u2019\u201d says astronomer Ryan MacDonald at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GJ 9827d was discovered in 2017 orbiting a star about 100 light-years from Earth. At about twice Earth\u2019s size and three times Earth\u2019s mass, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/exoplanets-mini-neptune-super-earth-atmosphere-space\">it\u2019s a type of planet called a sub-Neptune<\/a> <em>(SN: 8\/8\/22)<\/em>. Worlds like this are the most common in the galaxy, although our solar system doesn\u2019t have any.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.email-conversion {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  color: white;\n  margin-top: 50px;\n  background-image: url(\"\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@2x.jpg\");\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"rich-text embedded-conversion-content is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n#dynamic-wrapper {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  background-image: url(\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/032624_sb_space-sugar_feat.jpg?w&#61;800&amp;ssl&#61;1\");\n  background-size: cover;\n  background-position: center center;\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n#dynamic-conversion {\n  padding: 20px;\n  background:rgba(0,0,0, 0.5);\n  color: white;\n}\n\n#dynamic-conversion h2 {\n  color: white;\n}\n\np.has-text-align-center a {\n  color: white !important;\n  text-decoration: none;\n  font-weight: bold;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"dynamic-wrapper\" class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div id=\"dynamic-conversion\" class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>Tell us about your Science News experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Help us improve by taking our 15-question reader survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/aside>\n\n\n<p>But just knowing the planet\u2019s size and mass isn\u2019t enough to deduce what it\u2019s made of. To probe exoplanet skies, astronomers analyze <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/nasa-jwst-space-telescope-exoplanet\">starlight filtering through the planet\u2019s atmosphere<\/a> as it passes in front of its parent star <em>(SN: 6\/7\/24)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MacDonald and colleagues used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe two such passes, or transits, of GJ 9827d in November 2023. The Hubble space telescope had made similar observations and saw <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/2041-8213\/acebf0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">signs of water molecules in the planet\u2019s atmosphere<\/a>, astronomers reported last year. But it wasn\u2019t enough to tell if the atmosphere just had a little water in it, or if it was a whole water world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Combining the two telescopes\u2019 views made it unambiguously clear that the atmosphere was nearly all water. The planet\u2019s temperature is about 340\u00b0\u00a0Celsius, so all of that water should be vapor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such steam worlds \u201chave been predicted, but this is the first observational evidence that they really exist,\u201d Macdonald says. \u201cI feel like a Star Trek explorer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There might not be a solid rocky surface beneath the planet\u2019s steamy skies. Deep in the atmosphere, the pressure from all that water should get high enough to force the water molecules into weird and exotic forms of matter, like supercritical fluids or hot high-pressure ices, MacDonald says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That makes GJ 9827d an unlikely place to find life. But studying its atmosphere is good practice for observing planets that might be habitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is the proof of principle that we can detect heavier atmospheres,\u201d MacDonald says. \u201cWe\u2019re on the right track to where we want to be, astrobiologically.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/jwst-spots-the-first-known-steam-world\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This exoplanet\u2019s atmosphere is going full steam ahead. A planet beyond our solar system called GJ 9827d has an atmosphere composed almost completely of hot water molecules, astronomers report in the Astrophysical Journal Letters October 4. \u201cWe\u2019re using the term \u2018steam world,\u2019\u201d says astronomer Ryan MacDonald at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. GJ [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/101524_lg_steam-world_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[92563,35806,12340,1052],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159132,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159130\/revisions\/159132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}