James Webb Space Telescope practices studying alien atmospheres for signs of life

[Admin]

The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed an exoplanet's atmosphere in unprecedented detail, allowing scientists to understand the planet's past and test methods for detecting alien life.

James Webb Space Telescope practices studying alien atmospheres for signs of life : Read more

 

[p3orion]

Great article, but the planet' distance from its star is one-eighth the distance of Mercury from the sun, not "eight times closer." Constructions like "eight times closer," "three times less" and so forth is a relatively new form which has emerged only in the last few years, and which if you think about it actually makes no sense (eight times: eight multiplied by what?)

I've given up on advertisers and mainstream journalists understanding the difference (most of them can't do math anyway) but a technical writer can do better.

 

[Chris Gautreau]

Though the poster could have been a little more diplomatic, the comment does raise a valid point. As a former business writer and copy editor, and someone who is terrible at math, I know firsthand that care must be given to fractions, percentages and exponential figures. I offer one more tip: "Ever" is not necessary after "first." Something is either first or it's not. In any case, I urge the write to keep up the great work. It's not easy doing what you do.

 

[rod]

WASP-39b has a number of reports out on this exoplanet. Exoplanet atmospheres (iac.es), this site list the exoplanet too and atmosphere. 129 documented now with some atmosphere, some may have no atmosphere too.