How do exoplanet atmospheres form and evolve? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated two young exoplanets within a protoplanetary disk exhibiting newly observed and unique characteristics. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of exoplanetary atmospheres and what this could mean for searching for life beyond Earth.
For the study, the researchers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to observe two young exoplanets within the young solar system “YSES-1”, which is located approximately 310 light-years from Earth. While the system is estimated to be approximately 16.7 million years old (our solar system is approximately 4.6 billion years old), its two planets—YSES-1b and YSES-1c, are hypothesized to be larger than Jupiter at approximately 21.8 and 7.2 Jupiter masses, respectively.
Despite the system’s youth, the researchers discovered that YSES-1b has a smaller disk of its own orbiting it, indicating that this material could be used to form its own moon, also called an exomoon, which are still being hunted by astronomers. While some exomoon candidates are currently being explored, astronomers have yet to confirm the existence of an exomoon. For YSES-1c, the team discovered silicate clouds within its atmosphere but concluded this was the largest number of silicates discovered in an exoplanet’s atmosphere to date.
“Overall, this work highlights the incredible abilities of JWST to characterize exoplanet atmospheres,” said Dr. Evert Nasedkin, who is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Trinity College Dublin’s School of Physics and a co-author on the study. “With only a handful of exoplanets that can be directly imaged, the YSES-1 system offers unique insights into the atmospheric physics and formation processes of these distant giants.”
What new discoveries about exoplanet atmosphere formation and evolution will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Nature, EurekAlert!
Featured Image: Artist’s illustration of a protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star with the disk’s material being drawn in by the star’s magnetic field and onto the star’s surface. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)