This artist’s concept portrays the seven rocky exoplanets within the TRAPPIST-1 system, located 40 light-years
from Earth. Credit: NASA and JPL/Caltech
JWST data hints that Trappist-1e may have an atmosphere. More transits will test if this world could support liquid water.
Recent observations with NASA’s advanced JWST telescope have revealed a planet located 41 light-years from Earth that may possess an atmosphere. This planet orbits within the “habitable zone,” the region around a star where temperatures allow liquid water to remain on the surface of a rocky body. Water is essential because it is one of the fundamental requirements for sustaining life.
If upcoming observations verify these results, this would represent the first time a rocky planet in a star’s habitable zone has been confirmed to hold an atmosphere. The research is detailed in two studies published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
