Video Transcript:
Dr. Giada Arney: NASA missions like Kepler, and likewise Tess, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite have actually reinvented our understanding of exoplanet demographics.
Theyve informed us some fundamental, however also actually crucial planetary residential or commercial properties like: worlds sizes, how far these worlds are from their stars, how typical worlds of different types are.
We want to take the next action now and understand more about these worlds, simply as remote point sources, however as actual locations, comparable to the worlds of our Solar System.
James Webb is going to assist us to take that next step by actually characterizing the environments of exoplanets.
Its going to have the ability to determine the structure of these atmospheres, and weve already been able to do this a little bit for the biggest Jupiter-sized, “puffy” exoplanets with big atmospheres.
We have not been able to do this for little planets about the size of Earth and with thin atmospheres.
So we truly require a effective and capable mission like James Webb to be able to make those truly sensitive measurements to inform us what Earth-size exoplanets are really like.
This artists conception reveals the fully unfolded James Webb Space Telescope in space. Credit: Adriana Manrique Gutierrez, NASA Animator
The James Webb Space Telescope is taking exoplanet studies to the next level, helping us define the environments of Earth-sized alien worlds for the first time. By using transit techniques and spectroscopy, Webb will study planetary environments to browse for the structure blocks of life elsewhere in the universe.
In the “Exploring Alien Worlds with NASAs James Webb Space Telescope” series, Research Space Scientist Dr. Giada Arney from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center introduces Webbs scientific abilities as they associate with the field of astrobiology and our look for life in deep space.
In this series, well discuss Webbs expedition of the TRAPPIST-1 system (a planetary system of seven rocky exoplanets), its look for atmospheric biosignatures (clinical evidence of previous or present life), and the methods Webb will use in its mission to #UnfoldTheUniverse.