NASA’s James Webb telescope discover a new planet, a mysterious bit shiny and steamy atmosphere. The closest look at “mini Neptune”. This unknown mysterious planet is coming into the class of “mini-Neptune”.
The planet called “GJ 1214b” is too hot to harbor liquid but it is less hotter than the other planet. But present water in the vapourize form. The new exoplanet will be in future become the target of astronomers who are searching for life in exoplanets.
What is the “mini-Neptune” class of exoplanets?
Mini-Neptune Exoplanets
The mini-Neptune class of exoplanets resembles the Neptune planet of our solar system. The Neptune-like exoplanets are similar in size to the ice giants of Neptune in our solar system.
How is this Mysterious Exoplanet discovered?
NASA’s James Webb telescope discovers the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which views the wavelength of the light outside the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that the human eye can see. Using MIRI the team was able to create a kind of heat map of the planet as it orbited the star. The heat map revealed just before the planet’s carried it behind the star, as it emerged on the other side – both its day and night sides, unveiling details of the atmosphere’s compositions.
Eliza Kempton a researcher at the University of Maryland and lead author of the new paper published in Nature “The atmosphere just remained totally hidden from us until this observation, if indeed water-rich, the planet could have been a “water world” with a large amount of water and icy material at the time of its formation.”.
Kempton further added that “ The ability to get a full orbit was really critical to understand how the planet distributes heat from the day side to the night side, “There’s a lot of contrast between day and night. The night side is colder than the day side.” In fact, the temperatures shifted from 535 to 326 degrees Fahrenheit (from 279 to 165 degrees Celsius).”
The difference between this day and night shift is possible due to the atmosphere being made up of heavier molecules, such as water or Methane, which are important for the planet’s history and formation.
This is not a primordial atmosphere she said “It does not reflect the composition of the host star it reflect with it formed around, Instead it either lost a lot of hydrogen, it started with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere or it was formed from heavier elements, to begin with – more icy, water-rich material.
What is the Temperature of the Mysterious Planet?
The mysterious planet temperature GJ 1214b is hot by human standards. It is much cooler than expected. Astronomers are also surprised by the behavior of the stars.
The planet reflects the heat of its parent star it is orbiting rather than absorbing it rather than growing hotter.
This also suggests that the planet might have formed farther from its star and then gradually inward to its present, close orbit. The planet’s year – one orbit around the star – takes only 1.6 Earth days.
This suggests that the stars were rich in water because they formed farther away from the host star. This new research will help solve the possibilities about the histories of the other planets in the mini-Neptune class and the possibility of life in the mystery planet’s GJ 1214 b atmosphere.