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New findings made possible by the James Webb Space Telescope reveal that the Earth-like exoplanet Trappist-1 b may have an atmosphere after all, potentially overturning earlier findings. Approximately forty light years from Earth, seven planets orbit the star Trappist-1, three of which–Trappist-1e, f, and g–exist in the star’s habitable zone and could theoretically be warm enough to allow for liquid water on their surfaces. Since its launch, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has logged 290 hours observing the Trappist-1 system across ten research endeavors. Elsa Ducort of Paris’s Commissariat aux Énergies Atomiques (CEA) led the study team, which analyzed...

TRAPPIST-1e TRAPPIST-1e is a rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone of a star 39 light-years from Earth and may have water and clouds, as depicted in this artist’s impression. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAPPIST-1e ************************************************************************ To search for alien life, astronomers will search for clues in the atmospheres of distant planets – and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope just proved it’s possible to do so. The ingredients necessary for life are spread throughout the universe. While Earth is the only known place with life in the universe, detecting life beyond our planet is a major goal of modern astronomy and planetary science....