Geology from 50 Light-Years: Webb Gets Ready to Study Rocky Worlds:
With its mirror segments beautifully aligned and its scientific instruments undergoing calibration, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is just weeks away from full operation. Soon after the first observations are revealed this summer, Webb's in-depth science will begin.
Among the investigations planned for the first year are studies of two hot exoplanets classified as "super-Earths" for their size and rocky composition: the lava-covered 55 Cancri e and the airless LHS 3844 b. Researchers will train Webb's high-precision spectrographs on these planets with a view to understanding the geologic diversity of planets across the galaxy, and the evolution of rocky planets like Earth.
55 Cancri e orbits less than 1.5 million miles from its Sun-like star (one twenty-fifth of the distance between Mercury and the Sun), completing one circuit in less than 18 hours. With surface temperatures far above the melting point of typical rock-forming minerals, the day side of the planet is thought to be covered in oceans of lava.
[...] Like 55 Cancri e, LHS 3844 b orbits extremely close to its star, completing one revolution in 11 hours. However, because its star is relatively small and cool, the planet is not hot enough for the surface to be molten. Additionally, Spitzer observations indicate that the planet is very unlikely to have a substantial atmosphere.
[...] These observations of 55 Cancri e and LHS 3844 b will be conducted as part of Webb's Cycle 1 General Observers program. General Observers programs were competitively selected using a dual-anonymous review system, the same system used to allocate time on Hubble.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @03:26AM
Put out the images.
For buddha's sake, with all the hype, yous must have got the best EM shots of these .... far-away things. Put them out, the raw and embelished. Put them out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @01:29PM (7 children)
Wait! what?
Sure these are useful in the spectrum of creating our Geological dataset, but lava-covered??? Airless???
These are the first things we are going to point at?
What did I miss here, are we not looking for "habitable" worlds?
Does it not make more sense to focus on Atmosphere or worlds in the Goldielocks Zone?
(Score: 4, Informative) by FatPhil on Wednesday June 01 2022, @01:57PM (5 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday June 01 2022, @02:04PM (2 children)
"""
The Cycle 1 General Observers (GO) program provides the worldwide astronomical community with the first extensive opportunity to make observations with JWST. Approximately 6,000 hours were awarded to observing programs using the full suite of JWST instrumentation. Scientists also proposed for archival analysis of data from DD ERS programs and public GTO programs, theoretical investigations, and the development of software tools relevant to JWST observations. Science observations will begin following a 6-month commissioning period after launch.
"""
This one is:
"""
1952 [https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/program-information.html?id=1952]
Determining the Atmospheric Composition of the Super-Earth 55 Cancri e PI: Renyu Hu 12 15.4 NIRCam/GTS MIRI/LRS GO
"""
It's literally got only 15.4 hours of sensor time devoted to it. This is really really really not JWST's dayjob.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @08:39PM (1 child)
One thing I haven't thought to check is whether multiple sensors can be used at the same time.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday June 02 2022, @07:22AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @03:16AM (1 child)
I believe looking at exoplanet atmospheres is one of its stated mission goals. Chemical identification is much easier to do in the infrared wavelengths where there are a lot more spectral absorption lines per compound than there are in the visible wavelengths.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday June 02 2022, @07:43AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @07:13AM
It would make sense to look at those, except all the searches to find some came up empty. So they are looking at the ones that are scientifically interesting instead.