Can exoplanets have metal-rich atmospheres? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigated a new type of exoplanet that continues to display differences from planets within our own solar system. This study has the potential to help researchers use new methods for characterizing exoplanets while gaining greater insight into planetary formation and evolution throughout the universe.
For the study, which was led by Dr. Everett Schlawin from the University of Arizona, the researchers used data obtained from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to analyze the atmosphere of GJ 1214 b, which was discovered in 2009, located approximately 48 light-years from Earth, and has long been hypothesized to be a Neptune-like exoplanet. However, this recent data reveals the atmosphere of GJ 1214 b contains a metal-rich atmosphere, also known as high metallicity, along with high amounts of hazes, indicating a high carbon dioxide (CO2) content. This suggests that instead of a Neptune-like exoplanet, that GJ 1214 b is more of a super-Venus exoplanet, which is astounding since its orbital period is only 1.6 days, whereas the orbital period of Venus is 225 days.
Featured Image: Artist’s illustration of GJ 1214 b and its parent star. (Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)
“The detected CO2 signal from the first study is tiny, and so it required careful statistical analysis to ensure that it is real,” said Dr. Kazumasa Ohno, who is an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and lead author of the study. “At the same time, we needed the physical and chemical insights to extract the true nature of GJ 1214 b’s atmosphere from Schlawin’s study.”
With the tiny signal, the team aspires to conduct follow-up studies to confirm or refute their findings. However, if confirmed, this super-Venus orbiting so close to its parent star would continue to challenge our understanding of planetary formation and evolution, especially given the architecture of our own solar system.
How many more meal-rich exoplanets 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: The Astrophysical Journal Letters, NASA, EurekAlert!
