The next question was whether any of them had managed to keep an atmosphere. Now we know at least one has.”
>>> Arsenal in Advanced Talks for Morgan Rogers After Tzolis Deal
Independent Experts Weigh In
Dr. Jo Barstow, an expert in exoplanet atmospheres from the Open University, called the discovery a milestone.
“This discovery of escaping helium on a rocky world is a really important milestone,” she said.
However, she cautioned that high-energy radiation driving the helium escape might make surface conditions inhospitable.
“It doesn’t mean that it is necessarily habitable, and the same X-ray and ultraviolet radiation driving the helium escape may make conditions on the surface inhospitable.”
Dr. Barstow outlined the next steps: “What it does tell us is that rocky planets in close orbits around red dwarf stars can retain an atmosphere.
The next step in evaluating the habitability of LHS 1140 b is to learn what its atmosphere is made of, and for that we need more observations.”
Researchers have selected the exoplanet, originally discovered in 2017, for further study under the Rocky Worlds program using the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Dr. Jason Dittmann, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Florida, posed the key question: “Because there’s helium there, and because the helium is escaping, the question is: is it a bare rock with no atmosphere that sometimes burps up some gas that then immediately escapes, or is there a steady-state atmosphere there that will leak out stuff like the Earth does from time to time?”
Dr. Dittmann noted that future space telescope data will provide clarity within five years.
>>> Chelsea Hijacks Arsenal Transfer Target Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa
“JWST data over the next four to five years will look for water, and if there’s water in the atmosphere, then it’s probably a stable atmosphere that will persist.”
