Starship Asterisk*

New research from UW astronomers models how telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to study the planets of the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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New research from astronomers at the University of Washington uses the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 planetary system as a kind of laboratory to model not the planets themselves, but how the coming James Webb Space Telescope might detect and study their atmospheres, on the path toward looking for life beyond Earth.

The study, led by Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, a UW doctoral student in astronomy, finds that the James Webb telescope, set to launch in 2021, might be able to learn key information about the atmospheres of the TRAPPIST-1 worlds even in its first year of operation, unless — as an old song goes — clouds get in the way.

“The Webb telescope has been built, and we have an idea how it will operate,” said Lustig-Yaeger. “We used computer modeling to determine the most efficient way to use the telescope to answer the most basic question we’ll want to ask, which is: Are there even atmospheres on these planets, or not?” ...

• Astronomical Journal 158(1):27 (2019 July) DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab21e0
• arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1905.07070 > 17 May 2019