Webb Telescope Is Powerful Enough To See a Variety of Biosignatures In Exoplanet...
source link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/06/19/2253258/webb-telescope-is-powerful-enough-to-see-a-variety-of-biosignatures-in-exoplanets-argues-new-paper
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Webb Telescope Is Powerful Enough To See a Variety of Biosignatures In Exoplanets, Argues New Paperbinspamdupenotthebestofftopicslownewsdaystalestupid freshfunnyinsightfulinterestingmaybe offtopicflamebaittrollredundantoverrated insightfulinterestinginformativefunnyunderrated descriptive typodupeerror
They found that with a reasonably thick atmosphere, the JWST, specifically its NIRSpec G395M/H instrument, could confirm the presence of these molecules within 10 transits of the planet. It would be easiest to do with super-Earths and other worlds with a thick atmosphere, but it is still possible for potentially habitable worlds. Given the number of transits needed, our best shot at detecting biosignatures with JWST would be the close-orbiting worlds of red dwarf stars, such as the Trappist-1 system, which has several potentially habitable Earth-sized planets. Given the overlap between biological and non-biological origins, JWST observations might not be enough to confirm the existence of life, but this study shows that we are very close to that ability.
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