The measurement is based on the object's thermal radiation: energy released in the form of infrared light.
Scientists have discovered any form of light for the first timeemitted by an exoplanet as small and as cold as rocky objects in the solar system. So astronomers tested Webb's ability to characterize exoplanets the size of temperate Earth using MIRI.
“We can use the capabilities of Webb.”in the mid-infrared range. No predecessor telescope was sensitive enough to measure such dim mid-infrared light,” explained Thomas Green, an astrophysicist at NASA Ames Research Center and lead author of the study, on NASA's blog.
At the beginning of 2017, astronomers reportedabout the discovery of seven rocky planets orbiting an ultra-cool red dwarf (or M-dwarf) 40 light-years from Earth. Scientists have discovered similarities in size and mass between them and the inner rocky planets of the solar system. Although they all orbit much closer to their star than any of our planets orbit the Sun, they receive comparable amounts of energy from tiny TRAPPIST-1.
This graph compares daily temperaturesTRAPPIST-1 b measured by the Webb Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), with computer models of what the temperature would be under different conditions.
Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmstead (STScI); data: Thomas Green (NASA Ames), Taylor Bell (BAERI), Elsa Ducrot (CEA), Pierre-Olivier Lagage (CEA)
TRAPPIST-1 b, the closest star to the planet is heating up seven times more than the Earth. Although it is not in the system's habitable zone, observations of the planet will provide important information about its "relatives" as well as other M-dwarf systems.
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