IT·Science
Posted2024.05.09 09:24 Modified2024.05.09 09:24
An American research group captures hundreds of kilometers of atmospheric layer from the super-Earth ’55 Cancri is 41 light years away
The research results showed that the rocky exoplanet ’55 Cancri e’, located 41 light-years from Earth, has an atmospheric layer hundreds of kilometers thick. However, this planet seems uninhabitable as its surface is covered in lava and its maximum temperature is 2,300 degrees Celsius. On the 9th, Dr. Ren Yu Hu’s team from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) reported to the scientific journal Nature that for hundreds of kilometers around the female exoplanet 55 Cancri there is an atmospheric layer composed of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. e, located 41 light years away in the constellation Cancer.
The research team said: “There have been many attempts to find rocky exoplanets with thick atmospheres, but previous observations showed that they had no atmospheres or were very sparse,” adding that 55 Cancri e is actually the first rocky exoplanet with a dense atmosphere. . 55 Cancri e is a planet orbiting ’55 Cancri’, a star slightly smaller than the Sun in a binary star system. It is a super-Earth with a diameter of 1.95 times and a mass of 8.8 times that of Earth.
A super-Earth refers to an exoplanet larger than Earth and smaller than Neptune. In previous observations of 55 Cancri e, first discovered in 2004, the possibility of an atmosphere was discovered, but the composition and thickness of the atmosphere were unknown. difficult to determine.
The distance to the star is only 1 in 25 minutes of the Sun-Mercury distance, and the period of revolution and rotation is 18 hours, so only one side faces the star, so the surface temperature reaches a maximum of 2,300 degrees Celsius and it is estimated to be covered in lava, making it incompatible with life. It is assumed that there is no possibility of its existence. In this study, to investigate the characteristics of 55 Cankry e, the research team observed this planet with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) during a secondary eclipse event, when a bright primary star with the highest surface temperature among the binary stars dark 55 Cankry e. analyzed the data.
In the observation, the thermal emission spectrum of 55 Cancry e was measured at a wavelength of 4~12㎛ using the near-infrared camera (NIRCam) and mid-infrared observation device (MIRI) mounted on JWST .
As a result, the planet does not have a rarefied atmosphere composed of gas vaporized by lava, but a secondary atmosphere composed of volatile gases rich in carbon dioxide (CO₂) or carbon monoxide (CO), which exists for hundreds of kilometers, equivalent a It was found that it is several percent of the diameter of the planet. Furthermore, it was analyzed that in addition to carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, there are also molecules containing carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), sulfur (S) and phosphorus (P) in the atmosphere.
The research team said that this atmosphere appears to be formed and maintained by the continuous emission of gases from the magma sea onto the surface, and that further observations are needed because it is difficult to precisely determine the composition and quantity of the atmosphere based on the atmosphere. results from this study alone.
“The atmosphere on Earth is very important for life,” said Professor Bryce-Oliver Demory of the University of Bern, Switzerland, and co-author of the paper. “The results of this study show that JWST is located at 55 Cancri e, which has liquid water and an atmosphere capable of supporting life. “It gives us hope that we will find a much colder planet.” ◆ Source: Nature, Renyu Hu et al., “A secondary atmosphere on the rocky Exoplanet 55 Cancri e,” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07432-x
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