Posted on 03/09/2022 8:37:07 AM PST by Red Badger
TRAPPIST-1 Webb Space Telescope
During its first operating cycle, the James Webb Space Telescope will set its sights on the TRAPPIST-1 system, an incredible collection of seven rocky exoplanets 41 light years away from Earth.
Astrobiologists like Dr. Giada Arney from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center are excited about this system because TRAPPIST-1 is a perfect laboratory for studying habitability! It consists of seven rocky planets, distributed across the system’s habitable zone, or the area around a star where it is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface of surrounding planets. Webb will characterize the atmospheres of these planets and help scientists learn more about planetary formation and habitability.
VIDEO AT LINK..........................
See Part 1 in this video series.
Video Transcript:
Well, TRAPPIST-1 is a really exciting system for James Webb to observe. It’s going to observe TRAPPIST-1 early in its operating cycle.
And the reason why astronomers are so excited by TRAPPIST-1 is that it’s a system of seven, you know, not just one or two, but seven rocky planets orbiting a really low mass star.
This is really, really interesting because these planets sort of are a natural laboratory to study processes that might impact planetary habitability. And the reason for that is because some of the planets in that system are too close to the star to be habitable. They’re probably too hot.
Some of the planets in that system are just the right distance from their star to possibly be habitable. And then at least one of the planets in the system is probably too cold to be habitable. If I were to guess, I would probably guess that it’s cold and frozen over.
So by studying all the planets in the system and comparing and contrasting their characteristics, we might learn more about how planetary habitability varies as you move out or inward from your distance from your parent star, and also about the different processes that can enable or maybe destroy habitability at different distances from your star.
That’s really, really exciting.
And all of these planets are orbiting the same star.
So we know they’re all formed together; they’re all from the same material; they all experience the same processes from the star over their lifetime.
So, it’s a really, really nice system to use for this kind of comparison.
And of course, we also want to search for biosignatures in the atmospheres of the potentially habitable TRAPPIST-1 planets. And if we find things that’ll be really, really interesting because these low mass stars like TRAPPIST-1 are, they’re very different from our massive Sun-like stars.
These low mass stars tend to be… they’re really, really active. They produce a lot of high energy stellar flares. They produce a lot of high-energy radiation.
So, whatever evolutionary history these planets have had over time, it’s probably pretty different from the planets of our solar system just because its star behaves so differently.
And so, it’ll also be really, really interesting to compare the planets in the system to the rocky planets in our solar system and see, you know, in what ways are these planets different, but also in what ways are they the same?
Even if this TRAPPIST-1 Webb Space Telescope learns anything interesting, the government will never speak of it ...
I think we can expect major discoveries.
(They may be 'jaw-dropping' discoveries)
They will be able to directly measure the temperature of the individual planets and determine their possible habitability for human as well as alien life. If #1 is discovered, it will be ‘news’, if #2 is, it won’t be..............................
No, the science is settled!
I hope that telescope can explore the presidential alien world in Delaware.
More fake astrophysics...
No one has observed a planet around some distant star...
It doesn’t matter what telescope they use, all we can see is a dot...
All we see is the color of a star.
If you watched the video it’s nothing but CGI and supposition...
In other words, this is what we believe...
That’s not science, that’s called religion...
Take it on faith that what we’re saying is true...
That's a deep subject that those in the highest levels of government have to deal with. In this case they can only learn so much from 41 light years away. I have doubts they could conclusively remotely prove there is or is not life there given our levels of technology now.
However it would be truly exciting if they could ...
The planets in the solar system are made from very different materials. Or at least their atmospheres are different.
Thanks for the articulate comment!! I stopped clicking into the Apod threads for that very reason. Nothing but photoshopped imagery meant for 10 year olds... Hopefully we’ll at least see some real images that are not enhanced for stupid people...
They have already discovered many clusters of tiny white dots everywhere
Not really, but really, really? Why not really, really, really?
Thanks Red Badger.
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Is the system called TRAPPIST because the seven planets are all silent, like Trappist monks?
It’s an acronym.............
Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) telescope at La Silla Observatory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAPPIST-1
Every ten years, the monks in the monastery are allowed to break their vow of silence to speak two words.
Ten years go by and it’s one monk’s first chance.
He thinks for a second before saying, “Food bad.”
Ten years later, he says, “Bed hard.”
It’s the big day, a decade later. He gives the head monk a long stare and says, “I quit.”
“I’m not surprised,” the head monk says.
“You’ve been complaining ever since you got here.”
“Hopefully we’ll at least see some real images that are not enhanced for stupid people...”
I used to work at a world class observatory. I know exactly what the image data looks like that they obtain.
You cannot see it, because your eyes only work in the range of 310-770 nano meters. Most observations are way outside that range. Most any pictures you see are all “Photoshopped”,
enhanced, and manipulated. Sorry.
7 Detailed HD Images of Space by NASA ESA James Webb Space Telescope
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