The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered what appears to be clear signs of life on a “potentially habitable” planet about 50 million light-years from Earth.
Researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Montreal analyzed data sent back by the high-powered JWST optical satellite in late 2023. They showed that an exoplanet called LHS 1140 b, located in the constellation Cetus in the night sky, has a potential source of oceans and an atmosphere.
The name isn’t all that inspiring, but the possibilities are.
“Among the currently known temperate exoplanets, LHS 1140 b may be our best option for indirectly confirming the existence of liquid water on the surface of an alien world outside our solar system in the future.” The lead author stated: Charles Cadieux.
“This will be a major milestone in the search for potentially habitable exoplanets.”
NASA explains The planet is a “rocky world” with a radius 1.73 times that of Earth and a mass 5.6 times that of Earth. Color-wise, its appearance is similar to a combination of Mars and Jupiter.
Fellow NASA researcher Ryan McDonald added that this is the “first time we’ve seen” signs of a rocky, icy atmosphere on a planet outside our solar system, something the Voyager spacecraft would take 863,000 years to reach.
In fact, if there is water there, it’s probably beneath the dense, frozen ground, in a landscape described as similar to the ice planet Hoth from Star Wars.
“This will be a major milestone in the search for potentially habitable exoplanets.”
Lead study author Charles Cadieu
He further stated that LHS 1140 b is “one of the best small exoplanets” capable of maintaining a thick atmosphere. This new discovery marks a major milestone in the search for extraterrestrial life.
“We may have found evidence of air on this planet.”
LHS 1140 b, like Earth, is thought to exist in the “Goldilocks zone,” an ideal distance from its host star for a hot object roughly one-fifth the size of the Sun, so its temperature could potentially support liquid water, an estimated 20% of the planet’s mass.
There are also suggestions that exoplanet atmospheres may have similar characteristics to Earth’s, such as the presence of nitrogen.
“JWST’s initial investigations of LHS 1140 b reveal that it is perhaps the most atmospherically well-characterized exoplanet in the habitable zone known,” McDonald added.
“Further observations with JWST are needed to confirm the nitrogen-rich atmosphere and look for other gases, but this is a very promising start.”
