To detect subtle changes in the light coming from a potentially habitable exoplanet, you need to
In July 2022, the telescope studied the spectrum of the gas giant exoplanet WASP-96b. The spectrum showed the presence of water and clouds, but a planet as large and hot as WASP-96b is unlikely to host life.
However, these early data show that Webb can detect faint chemical signatures in the light that comes from exoplanets.
In the coming months, James Webb is set to study TRAPPIST-1e, a potentially habitable planet the size of Earth. It is located just 39 light years from us.
Webb can look for biosignals by studying planets,as they pass in front of their host stars. So you can catch the starlight that seeps through the atmosphere of the planet. But James Webb was not designed to search for life, so the telescope can only study in detail a few nearby potentially habitable worlds.
It can also detect only changes in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor: certain combinations of these gases indicateBut Webb is unable to detect the presence of unbound oxygen, which is the most serious biosignature.
В настоящее время также строятся три огромных наземных телескопа, которые смогут искать биосигналы: Giant Magellen Telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope и the European Extremely Large Telescope.
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