Monday, November 25, 2024

An ocean world within reach of James Webb

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Jillian Castillo
Jillian Castillo
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Technical representation of exoplanets TOI-1452 b. Credit: University of Montreal / Benoit Goujon

against’It is a timely discovery! An international team of researchers led by Quebecir Charles Kedio, a doctoral student at the University of Montreal, and his research director, astrophysicist RenĂ© Doyon, believe they have found an oceanic world in orbit around a red dwarf in a binary star system relatively close to the Sun.

Discovered in the constellation of the Dragon, two years ago, thanks to NASA’s Tess Space Telescope (Transit Satellite for Exoplanet Reconnaissance), this exoplanet called TOI-1452b will already be a hundred light-years away from us. Enough to make this rocky body covered in a thick layer of liquid water, so precious to life, is a favorite target for the new James Webb Space Telescope.

Earth’s supernatural light

In fact, if the authors The new study, published in Astronomical Journal In September they convinced themselves that it was a vast and deep ocean, not at all by direct observation but by inferences and models. First, by analyzing data from TESS, who observed this planet passing in front of its star, they were able to find out its size: 70% larger than our planet. Earth type superhero! Then they set out to measure another specific parameter thanks to which scientists were able to get an idea of ​​what the exoplanets looked like: their mass.

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