Commercial Purposes ► [email protected] - - Believe it or not, we are in the era of exoplanets. Since the first exoplanet was discovered, in 1992, astronomers have been looking for them, hunting them, because they could be hiding the biggest treasure of all: life. Both space telescopes and ground telescopes are needed to study the atmospheres of such far extraterrestrial worlds. The JWST is the perfect candidate to finally give us the answer to the question: are we alone in the universe?
I'm talking seriously! One of NASA's telescopes is to revolutionize our understanding of exoplanets. The plan is quite clear: during its first year, it will spend a significant amount of time studying potentially habitable star systems.
To be more precise, JWST will spend a full quarter of its time around the Lagrangian point L2 studying exoplanets. But perhaps the most interesting part is that almost ten percent of these exoplanet observations will be used to stare at the distant and mysterious star TRAPPIST-1.
TRAPPIST-1 is known to have planets orbiting around it. What can this tiny planetary system teach us about life as we know it and planetary evolution? Let's find out!
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Credits: Ron Miller, Mark A. Garlick / MarkGarlick.com Credits: Nasa/Shutterstock/Storyblocks/Elon Musk/SpaceX/ESA/ESO/ Flickr
00:00 Intro 1:32 The News of Trappist 1 4:30 What's Webb supposed to do? 8:30 transit spectroscopy Conclusion
