Astronomers are using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope to study the world called TRAPPIST-1e. This regional research marks a critical step in determining whether the planet has an atmosphere or not.
TRAPPIST-1e is an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. It attracts scientists’ attention because it lies in the so-called habitable zone, where the possibility of liquid water on the surface could lay the groundwork for conditions favorable to life.
From the perspective of atmospheric search, chemical fingerprints of the planet’s atmosphere can appear in the spectrum absorbed as starlight passes through it. Thus, the characteristic fingerprints of the substances present in the planet’s atmosphere become the main target of observations. However, the red dwarf TRAPPIST-1 star complicates the data with surface spots and other effects, making it harder to determine the atmosphere.
The team must carefully subtract the light passing through the star’s surface and cleanse the available data of contamination in order to reveal the planet’s atmosphere clearly. This process was critically important to increase the reliability of the data gathered over the past year; because a verifiable atmospheric composition could provide important clues about the presence of signs of life.
So far, no definitive results have been obtained. Researchers continue their work to study the planet’s atmosphere more deeply and to obtain a clearer picture of atmospheric content with every transit. These studies will continue in the coming years and bring us one step closer to understanding the potential habitability of TRAPPIST-1e.
