NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is following neon signs to gain new insights into planet formation. Neon is an indicator of the amount and type of radiation that hits and erodes the disk around a star.
The JWST has detected neon in the dusty disk surrounding the young Sun-like star SZ Chamaelontis (SZ Cha). The JWST has also discovered that the abnormal neon III present in the planet-forming disk has all but disappeared.
The amount of ionized neon gas present in dusty, planet-forming disks can tell us how quickly planets must form before the disk itself disappears. Typically, a disk is dominated by X-ray radiation, which evaporates the disk more quickly, leaving planets less time to form.
The JWST detects light wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum from visible red to mid-infrared. Its four instruments provide wavelength coverage from 600 to 28,500 nanometers, or 0.6 to 28.5 microns
This is a rare finding and one of only five times astronomers have detected Neon III in a disk. “Once again, the universe is showing us that none of its methods are as simple as we might like to make them. We need to rethink, re-observe, and gather more information. We’ll be following the neon signs,” said Espaillat.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) uses a few methods to find planets:
- Transit method The JWST looks for dimming of light from a star when a planet passes between the star and Earth.
- Host star Astronomers study host stars and look for small deviations in their brightness or motion, which indicate the presence of a planet.
- Doppler shifts Measuring a star’s spectrum over time can detect Doppler shifts caused by a planet moving the star toward and away from us. Larger radial velocities mean bigger planets.
The JWST can observe planets at or beyond the orbit of Mars, satellites, comets, asteroids, and Kuiper belt objects.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is expected to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos. It will help us:
- Understand how early galaxies formed and grew
- Detect possible chemical signatures of life on other planets
- Study black holes from a different angle
- Determine whether planets orbiting other stars could support life
- See galaxies that formed just after the Big Bang
The JWST has already made several discoveries, including:
- Detailed images of galaxies These images show galaxies that existed when the universe was only 900 million years old.
- The most distant active supermassive black hole The galaxy that hosts the black hole, CEERS 1019, formed 570 million years after the Big Bang.
- Water vapor in protoplanetary disks This discovery confirmed a physical process involving the drifting of ice-coated solids from the outer regions.
- Water in the atmosphere of a giant gas planet This discovery represents a significant advancement in finding potentially habitable planets.
Universe discoveries 