(ORDO NEWS) — Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b is comparable to the Earth in size and mass, but is too close to its star.
As a result, she was unable to maintain the atmosphere, without which her day side is constantly heated above 200 degrees.
Located just 40 light-years away, TRAPPIST-1 is about a tenth the size of the Sun, but has an impressive system of seven planets.
All of them are comparable to the Earth in size, and three are within the “habitable zone”, where it is warm enough for the existence of liquid water and, perhaps, even life.
The exact answer to the question of potential habitability depends on the presence and properties of the atmosphere, which can affect the temperature of the planet, for example, due to the greenhouse effect.
But the high activity of a dwarf star can easily destroy any atmosphere, especially since all the TRAPPIST-1 planets are closer to it than Mercury is to the Sun.
On the other hand, the atmosphere on them can be constantly replenished due to any geological processes. Therefore, the question of its presence in planets near red dwarfs is quite important.
The closest is the largest planet in the system, TRAPPIST-1 b. It makes a full annual revolution in just one and a half of our days, receiving four times more radiation from its star than the Earth receives from the Sun.
The planet’s radius is nearly equal to Earth’s, but its mass is slightly less than 0.8 Earth’s, indicating a low density, possibly associated with large amounts of water and/or other light substances.
However, new observations of TRAPPIST-1 b by the James Webb Space Telescope have shown that it has no atmosphere.
James Webb viewed TRAPPIST-1 b in the infrared as the planet began and completed its transit behind its star. At such moments, the telescope “sees” their total radiation.
“Subtracting” the contribution of the star, you can get the radiation of the planet itself, determining its temperature. For TRAPPIST-1 b, it was about 230 degrees Celsius.
Due to the small size of the orbit, the planet is constantly turned to the star with the same side, as the Moon is to the Earth. Calculations predict that if TRAPPIST-1 b had an atmosphere, it could distribute heat more evenly.
But new data showed that the day side of the planet is heating up too much, which means that there is no atmosphere on it.
Apparently, no geological processes – even if they occur on TRAPPIST-1 b – were able to compensate for the constant erosion of light compounds associated with the influence of a nearby and restless red dwarf.
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