One of the ground-breaking abilities of the James Webb Space Telescope is that researchers can use it to not only detect distant planets but also to peer into their atmosphere. Now, new research using Webb has uncovered differing conditions between morning and evening on a distant exoplanet, the first time such differences have been observed on a planet outside our solar system.
The research looked at a gas giant planet called WASP-39 b, located 700 light-years away, which Webb has previously studied to learn about its atmosphere. The planet orbits very close to its star, completing an orbit in just four days, so it is extremely hot. It is also tidally locked, meaning one side always faces the star and the other always faces out into space, so there is a big difference in conditions on each half of the planet.
The new research looks at the boundary between the side facing the star, called the dayside where it is an eternal morning, and the other side, called the nightside, which is eternal evening. The boundary, called the terminator region, was split into two semicircles representing the morning and the evening conditions.
“This is the first time that a separate measurement of a direct evening and morning spectrum of an exoplanet has been possible,” said researcher Maria Steinrück of the University of Chicago in a statement. “This method can greatly help with understanding the climate of exoplanets.”
The data showered that the evening was much hotter, at a blistering 1,450 degrees Fahrenheit (800 degrees Celsius), while the morning was cooler at 1,150 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius). The researchers state that the evening is likely hotter due to the presence of clouds that could keep the heat in, and also because of powerful winds of up to thousands of miles per hour that carry hot gas from the dayside to the nightside.
Taking these measurements was only possible because of Webb’s extreme sensitivity, using its NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument to detect tiny changes in the light coming from the host star as it is filtered through the planet’s atmosphere.
“It’s really stunning that we are able to parse this small difference out, and it’s only possible due Webb’s sensitivity across near-infrared wavelengths and its extremely stable photometric sensors,” said fellow researcher Néstor Espinoza of the Space Telescope Science Institute. “Any tiny movement in the instrument or with the observatory while collecting data would have severely limited our ability to make this detection. It must be extraordinarily precise, and Webb is just that.”
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.