About the episode
Astronomers using the James Webb Telescope may have detected an atmosphere surrounding a rocky planet outside our solar system.
Signs of an atmosphere have been found around dozens of exoplanets in the past two decades. But not every atmosphere is equally easy to see. For example, some small rocky planets – such as Earth – have a very thin gas mantle as an atmosphere and these are very difficult to detect.
Now those atmospheric gases have been found. Around 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet, 41 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cancer, which was already discovered in 2011. The planet has a diameter twice that of Earth, and is also greater in density.
By the way, don’t imagine green valleys and mountains: the planet orbits so closely around its sun that everything on the surface has probably melted. Not a blue sea with fish, but bubbling oceans of magma.
The measurements are the best evidence yet for the existence of an atmosphere of a rocky planet outside our solar system. And so Webb is once again pushing the boundaries of astronomy.
Read more about the research here: Webb data points to possible atmosphere around rocky exoplanet
