‘Hot Jupiter’ Planet Study May Help Us Find Life-Friendly Worlds

A huge gas giant’s yield of water and carbon dioxide could one day help us understand the atmospheres of planets closer to the size of Earth, scientists say.

Telescopic observations of a “hot Jupiter” gas giant, which is a huge planet hugging in close to its parent star, revealed the first-ever direct measurements of water and carbon monoxide in an exoplanet.

The planet is too close to its star to host life as we know it, and far too large besides. But you can think of this study as a practice round, as measuring gas abundance in a larger planet will help with figuring out how to do so with much smaller planets that are potentially habitable — those that are closer to Earth’s size and potentially able to host water on their surfaces.

Precise measurements in the infrared, which allowed the scientists to chart the heat “glow” of the exoplanet during its path around its parent star, allowed the team to infer different gases and their amounts in the atmosphere. That’s because gases produce precise chemical “fingerprints” that can be picked up with spectroscopy.

“This work represents a pathfinder demonstration for how we will ultimately measure biosignature gases like oxygen and methane, in potentially habitable worlds in the not-too-distant future,” stated study leader Michael Line, an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and space exploration.

 The scientists measured gas abundance in a planet 340 light-years from Earth, using the ground-based Gemini Observatory telescope in Chile. They focused on a well-studied planet called WASP-77Ab, which again allows scientists to build from the known to the unknown to make future studies a little easier.

Direct measurements of water and carbon monoxide allowed scientists to look for other elements common to life, which are oxygen and carbon. The scientists then plan to build out a database of at least 15 more planets so we can chart the relevant abundance among large worlds, which will pave the way for future telescopes to focus on smaller ones.

In particular, the scientists expect that the Giant Magellan Telescope, also under construction in Chile, will be able to build on this work to look at smaller planets in the 2030s, after its “first light.” The James Webb Space Telescope, launching this year, may also be able to give us some hints about huge planet atmospheres that could help with this future work.

A study based on the research was published in Nature.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethhowell1/2021/11/01/hot-jupiter-planet-study-may-help-us-find-life-friendly-worlds/?sh=17a20fe85b1c