James Webb Space Telescope finds no atmosphere on Earth-like TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet

[Admin]

New measurements by the James Webb Space Telescope found that a rocky exoplanet orbiting a star known as TRAPPIST-1 most likely has no atmosphere.

James Webb Space Telescope finds no atmosphere on Earth-like TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet : Read more

 

[rod]

My observation. In the space.com article, a key comment I note. "Thomas Greene, an astrophysicist in the Space Science and Astrobiology Division at NASA's Ames Research Center in California who led the observations, told Space.com in an email that he had hoped for a different result. "Some theory groups predicted that the planet would have a dense atmosphere, while others thought it might not," Greene said. "I was more disappointed than surprised to see it had no atmosphere."

The exoplanet atmosphere site shows TRAPPIST-1 b too. http://research.iac.es/proyecto/exoatmospheres/view.php?name=TRAPPIST-1 b.

This is not the first report of an exoplanet indicating no atmosphere observed. GJ 1252 b, Discovery could dramatically narrow search for space creatures, https://phys.org/news/2022-10-discovery-narrow-space-creatures.html

 

[Helio]

Yep, that's a very hot planet.

 

[rod]

There are plenty of reports out on the TRAPPIST-1, 7 exoplanet system.

Are planets with oceans common in the galaxy? It's likely, NASA scientists find, https://phys.org/news/2020-06-planets-oceans-common-galaxy-nasa.html, "...When Webb launches, scientists will try to detect chemical signatures in the atmospheres of some of the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, which is 39 light years away in the constellation Aquarius. In 2017, astronomers announced that this system has seven Earth-size planets. Some have suggested that some of these planets could be watery, and Quick's estimates support this idea. According to her team's calculations, TRAPPIST-1 e, f, g and h could be ocean worlds, which would put them among the 14 ocean worlds the scientists identified in this study."

Do the TRAPPIST-1 planets have atmospheres?, https://phys.org/news/2020-07-trappist-planets-atmospheres.html

A review of possible planetary atmospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 system, https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.03334, 07-July-2020. “TRAPPIST-1 is a fantastic nearby (~39.14 light years) planetary system made of at least seven transiting terrestrial-size, terrestrial-mass planets all receiving a moderate amount of irradiation. To date, this is the most observationally favourable system of potentially habitable planets."

Much hope is in the galaxy (looking for habitable exoplanets) because of TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet system. Much remains to be confirmed and shown true about those exoplanets as well.

 

[Helio]

Yes. With oxygen being the most produced "metal" (nucleosynthesis), it makes sense that water is abundant. Oxygen is about 10x more abundant than iron.

Trappist-1e seems favorable, though it didn't make the list using the atmospheric method.

 

[rod]

Helio in post #5 points out the hope in the galaxy for the TRAPPIST-1 system. Atmospheric studies by JWST of exoplanets, continues to present surprises and evolutionary model problems.

James Webb Space Telescope confirms giant planet atmospheres vary widely, https://phys.org/news/2023-03-james-webb-space-telescope-giant.html

Ref - High atmospheric metal enrichment for a Saturn-mass planet, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05984-y, 27-March-2023.

It remains to be seen just how many *rocky* exoplanets have no atmospheres, and how many gas giant exoplanets depart from the solar system model standard. As the phys.org report concludes: "While an abundance of carbon might seem favorable for chances of life, a high carbon to oxygen ratio actually means less water on a planet or in a planetary system—a problem for life as we know it. Smertrios is an interesting first case of atmospheric composition for this particular study, said Lunine, who has plans in place to observe five more giant exoplanets in the coming year using JWST. Many more observations are needed before astronomers can discover any patterns among giant planets or in systems with multiple giant planets or terrestrial planets to the compositional diversity astronomers are beginning to document. "The origin of this diversity is a fundamental mystery in our understanding of planet formation," Bean said. "Our hope is that further atmospheric observations of extrasolar planets with JWST will quantify this diversity better and yield constraints on more complex trends that might exist."

 

[mbee1]

New measurements by the James Webb Space Telescope found that a rocky exoplanet orbiting a star known as TRAPPIST-1 most likely has no atmosphere.

James Webb Space Telescope finds no atmosphere on Earth-like TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet : Read more

One has to wonder what got lost between the actual study and the author of this piece. Venus has a surface temperature of 900 degrees and a very dense atmosphere. All the study would seem to indicate is the atmosphere is not as thick as Venus depending on were the temperature measurements were made. If at the surface we could have an atmosphere as thick as earths and measure that same result. 100% that same result if it is as thin as Mars. Since the planet is 1.4 times more massive than earth the likelihood of zero atmosphere is essentially zero if one looks at the earth system for examples. The only way to arrive at zero atmosphere is if the sun has had a massive higher output in the past, perhaps a flare star history, no such history is mentioned in the article.

 

[rod]

JWST reports the temperature of TRAPPIST-1 b is 503 K now, previous reporting showed 400 K. JWST not only shows no atmosphere or little, but also increased the exoplanet temperature from 400 K to 503 K. Exoplanet studies can turn around quickly when looking for habitable exoplanets. At present, the Earth is very rare with abundant water, abundant life living today, and a fossil record when compared to other planets in our solar system or the more than 5300 exoplanets documented now.

Webb measures temperature of rocky exoplanet for first time, https://phys.org/news/2023-03-webb-temperature-rocky-exoplanet.html

ref - Thermal Emission from the Earth-sized Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b using JWST, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05951-7, 27-March-2023.

My note. http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/trappist-1_b/, shows the measured temperature is 503 K citing Thermal emission from the Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b using JWST, https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14849, 26-March-2023. The calculated temperature was 400 K so JWST increased the exoplanet temperature by 100 K. This site still reports 400 K, JWST has changed this view of TRAPPIST-1 b exoplanet. http://research.iac.es/proyecto/exoatmospheres/view.php?name=TRAPPIST-1 b

 

[murgatroyd]

From what I understand, even the $10 billion Webb telescope isn't likely to find evidence of life on exoplanets. That will be the task of a future telescope, capable of performing spectroscopic examination on a very large number of rocky planets in habitable zones. A clear marker of biological activity would be detection of chlorophyll. A null result after examination of, say, 100,000 candidate planets would be disheartening, but at the same time provide clarity. In a galaxy with some 100 billion stars, there could still be life elsewhere ... but given the gulfs in distance and time, it could be an academic question, of no relevance to humans.

In the very distant future, our "descendants" (for certain values of the word) could still explore the length and breadth of the Milky Way, but they will either be purely mechanical embodiments of artificial general intelligence ... or genetically engineered organisms capable of withstanding millenniae of interstellar travel. If the latter, my money is on cognitively enhanced tardigrades. These tiny animals (please don't call them ugly!) are already famed today for resilience and longevity in the harshest conditions including airlessness, radioactivity and cold. Perhaps a smattering of human DNA will be preserved in the genome of the tardigrades-plus (for sentimental reasons).

 

[rod]

Interesting view by murgatroyd in post #9. The tardigrades look like a problem now for panspermia doctrine.

Tardigrades survive impacts of up to 825 meters per second, https://phys.org/news/2021-05-tardigrades-survive-impacts-meters.html

"To find out, the research pair obtained 20 tardigrade specimens and put them in a deep freeze to induce their sleep-like state. They then placed them in groups of two or three into thin cylinders filled with water. The cylinders were then placed inside of a larger cylinder that served as an ammunition shell for a two-stage light gas gun. The gun was placed inside of a vacuum chamber where its shell was fired at a target made of sand. Shots were fired from the gun at different speeds to see what impact each would have on the passenger tardigrades. The researchers found that the tardigrades shot from the gun at speeds up to 825 meters per second could be resuscitated after removal from the cylinder. Those experiencing higher-speed impacts were torn apart and did not survive. The researchers suggest that tardigrades would likely not survive an impact with a planet if they traveled across space on an asteroid (as some have suggested), as such impacts tend to be at higher speeds than the tardigrades could tolerate."

My observation. This is a blow to panspermia thinking and life transferring around to other planets via asteroid and meteor impacts. Velocities and kinetic energy too high for survival of tardigrades.

 

[Helio]

JWST reports the temperature of TRAPPIST-1 b is 503 K now, previous reporting showed 400 K. JWST not only shows no atmosphere or little, but also increased the exoplanet temperature from 400 K to 503 K. Exoplanet studies can turn around quickly when looking for habitable exoplanets. At present, the Earth is very rare with abundant water, abundant life living today, and a fossil record when compared to other planets in our solar system or the more than 5300 exoplanets documented now.

It's nice to see the JWST is working as hoped. It offers better accuracy than prior scopes.

The methods used to calculate temperatures for planets is subject to how accurate the input data is. The equilibrium temp. method, for example, assumes a bond albedo of 0.3 for the planet, which is just a guess. A lower albedo would make the planet more likely to be hotter.

Another method uses the radius of the star, which can't be determined to great accuracy since most stars can't even be seen as anything other than a tiny point.

For this reason, I like to show where in the HZ a planet is calculated to be, thus one can play with the probability a little better when knowing if it's in the middle of the zone or on the edge.

 

[mbee1]

Interesting view by murgatroyd in post #9. The tardigrades look like a problem now for panspermia doctrine.

Tardigrades survive impacts of up to 825 meters per second, https://phys.org/news/2021-05-tardigrades-survive-impacts-meters.html

"To find out, the research pair obtained 20 tardigrade specimens and put them in a deep freeze to induce their sleep-like state. They then placed them in groups of two or three into thin cylinders filled with water. The cylinders were then placed inside of a larger cylinder that served as an ammunition shell for a two-stage light gas gun. The gun was placed inside of a vacuum chamber where its shell was fired at a target made of sand. Shots were fired from the gun at different speeds to see what impact each would have on the passenger tardigrades. The researchers found that the tardigrades shot from the gun at speeds up to 825 meters per second could be resuscitated after removal from the cylinder. Those experiencing higher-speed impacts were torn apart and did not survive. The researchers suggest that tardigrades would likely not survive an impact with a planet if they traveled across space on an asteroid (as some have suggested), as such impacts tend to be at higher speeds than the tardigrades could tolerate."

My observation. This is a blow to panspermia thinking and life transferring around to other planets via asteroid and meteor impacts. Velocities and kinetic energy too high for survival of tardigrades.

All this does is show travel impact speeds need to be slower which is easily done if the rock is actually mostly ice and breaks apart into smaller pieces which than land. They have found a whole lot of rocky meteors sitting on the surface, Antarctica is an example so they land at pretty low velocity.

 

[mikeash]

Is there any means possible to detect magnetic fields around exoplanets?

 

[mbee1]

JWST reports the temperature of TRAPPIST-1 b is 503 K now, previous reporting showed 400 K. JWST not only shows no atmosphere or little, but also increased the exoplanet temperature from 400 K to 503 K. Exoplanet studies can turn around quickly when looking for habitable exoplanets. At present, the Earth is very rare with abundant water, abundant life living today, and a fossil record when compared to other planets in our solar system or the more than 5300 exoplanets documented now.

Webb measures temperature of rocky exoplanet for first time, https://phys.org/news/2023-03-webb-temperature-rocky-exoplanet.html

ref - Thermal Emission from the Earth-sized Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b using JWST, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05951-7, 27-March-2023.

My note. http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/trappist-1_b/, shows the measured temperature is 503 K citing Thermal emission from the Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b using JWST, https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14849, 26-March-2023. The calculated temperature was 400 K so JWST increased the exoplanet temperature by 100 K. This site still reports 400 K, JWST has changed this view of TRAPPIST-1 b exoplanet. http://research.iac.es/proyecto/exoatmospheres/view.php?name=TRAPPIST-1 b

The measured temperatures are less than Venus which has a very thick atmosphere and a lot smaller mass planet. I would question the accuracy of the no atmosphere claim and if it turns out to be true, this planet atmosphere was blasted off by the star so a flair star is not a good candidate to say anything about life bearing planets. Given the claims about the current star it suggests star formation theory has a hole as well about as big as the grand canyon.

 

[mbee1]

It's nice to see the JWST is working as hoped. It offers better accuracy than prior scopes.

The methods used to calculate temperatures for planets is subject to how accurate the input data is. The equilibrium temp. method, for example, assumes a bond albedo of 0.3 for the planet, which is just a guess. A lower albedo would make the planet more likely to be hotter.

Another method uses the radius of the star, which can't be determined to great accuracy since most stars can't even be seen as anything other than a tiny point.

For this reason, I like to show where in the HZ a planet is calculated to be, thus one can play with the probability a little better when knowing if it's in the middle of the zone or on the edge.

The calculations and assumptions are not offered in this thread. If one looks at it, the whole thing is bound up in a ball of assumptions, any one of which causes the result to change if that assumption is incorrect. While I will not argue about the assumptions as that would take a research paper to do I offer my opinion which is take the claims with a big dose of salt and the JWST is giving a better view.

 

[mbee1]

From what I understand, even the $10 billion Webb telescope isn't likely to find evidence of life on exoplanets. That will be the task of a future telescope, capable of performing spectroscopic examination on a very large number of rocky planets in habitable zones. A clear marker of biological activity would be detection of chlorophyll. A null result after examination of, say, 100,000 candidate planets would be disheartening, but at the same time provide clarity. In a galaxy with some 100 billion stars, there could still be life elsewhere ... but given the gulfs in distance and time, it could be an academic question, of no relevance to humans.

In the very distant future, our "descendants" (for certain values of the word) could still explore the length and breadth of the Milky Way, but they will either be purely mechanical embodiments of artificial general intelligence ... or genetically engineered organisms capable of withstanding millenniae of interstellar travel. If the latter, my money is on cognitively enhanced tardigrades. These tiny animals (please don't call them ugly!) are already famed today for resilience and longevity in the harshest conditions including airlessness, radioactivity and cold. Perhaps a smattering of human DNA will be preserved in the genome of the tardigrades-plus (for sentimental reasons).

To travel to other stars will cost resources which cost money, how much will depend on the cost of those resources. If mankind gets off the planet in large numbers which remains in doubt, somebody will have the resources, habitable planets would be nice except for the tiny fact they would be filled with organism which would eat us for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Rocky and ice containing bodies would be a lot easier to use and safer . If humans are off the planet they would most likely not be planet dwellers so those resources would appeal to them. Time to travel depends on average launch velocity which gets back to the cost of the resources.

 

[murgatroyd]

Tardigrades-plus won't be hapless baggage on asteroids. They will be piloting spaceships they built themselves. A million tardigrades weigh only 1 gram, thus the spaceship will be very low mass and require little fuel. Further mass savings come from the vastly reduced need for life-support systems and shielding. A cognitively enhanced tardigrade may weigh as much as ten times more, but that is still only 1/100,000 of a gram. On its own, our little friend may not be smarter than a bee, but a thousand tardigrades-plus form a hive mind (communicating via radio frequency) that rivals the smartest human alive today. Any currently still existing vulnerabilities to environmental conditions will have been "ironed out" also by genetic engineering.

Four years ago, an Israeli probe carrying thousands of tardigrades crashed on the Moon. We should examine the crash site for survivors and select these hardiest of the hardiest winners to form the founding stock of our engineering and breeding program.

Sky Marshal Diennes said that we must "ensure that human civilization, not insect, dominates this galaxy now and always". I would modify that and ask, why not both? By merging our DNA with that of the tardigrades, we create a race of hybrids that marries the best of both worlds.

 

[rod]

Is there any means possible to detect magnetic fields around exoplanets?

Yes, there are two explanets reported now with possible magnetic fields, however, the field strength seems elusive and could also be arising from stellar activity.

Do Earth-like exoplanets have magnetic fields? Far-off radio signal is promising sign, https://phys.org/news/2023-04-earth-like-exoplanets-magnetic-fields-far-off.html

Ref - Coherent radio bursts from known M-dwarf planet-host YZ Ceti, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-01914-0, 03-April-2023.

HAT-P-11 b is another exoplanet reported with possible magnetic field detected. https://phys.org/news/2021-12-astronomers-signature-magnetic-field-exoplanet.html

 

[rod]

mbee1 and murgatroyd in their posts (12-17) present some interesting views. Concerning meteorites with biological life in them, the best example was ALH84001 reported during the Clinton administration. This biological life report suggesting life on Mars, fell apart as rigorous science testing continued. I prefer the Galileo standard. He could see the tiny lights moving around Jupiter, I can today using my telescopes observe those same tiny lights. Speculation about panspermia or tardigrades, should meet the same rigorous standards. Presently we have two exoplanets reported now with no atmospheres and TRAPPIST-1 b turns out to be some 100 K hotter than previously thought with no atmosphere.

 

[rod]

Following up on TRAPPIST-1 e exoplanet, the space.com article here reported:

"In the TRAPPIST-1 system, there are at least three planets — TRAPPIST-1e, 1f and 1g — that have conditions for the existence of liquid water on their surfaces and therefore might host life. "

New models for exoplanet activity orbiting close to red dwarf stars raises serious questions here for astrobiology.

Heating of the Atmospheres of Short-orbit Exoplanets by Their Rapid Orbital Motion Through an Extreme Space Environment, https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.14459

My note, this PDF report presents problems for astrobiology and habitable exoplanets orbiting close to red dwarf host stars. Many like TRAPPIST-1 e could have their atmospheres evaporating and change dramatically over long time scales. I think it is important to keep updated on exoplanets reported in the news that seem habitable and could have life and as time passes, other follow up studies call the paradigm into question.