* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Friday, September 19, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Massive Attack Say They’ll Remove Music From Spotify – yahoo.com

    Massive Attack Announces Plans to Pull Their Music from Spotify

    REO to return for UI homecoming – The News-Gazette

    REO Gears Up to Ignite the Stage at UI Homecoming Celebration!

    Gen V Season 2: What is The Odessa Project? – yahoo.com

    Gen V Season 2: Unlocking the Secrets of The Odessa Project

    PENN Entertainment stock rating reiterated at Market Outperform by JMP – Investing.com

    PENN Entertainment Stock Rated a Market Outperformer by Experts

    Here’s how NJ’s once-vibrant nightclub scene was born and why it died – Bergen Record

    The Rise and Fall of New Jersey’s Once-Vibrant Nightclub Scene: What Happened?

    The Emmys are back: Viewership soars to highest numbers in 4 years – yahoo.com

    The Emmys Return with a Bang: Viewership Hits a 4-Year High

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Huawei Unveils New AI Chip Tech to Challenge Nvidia’s Lead – Bloomberg.com

    Huawei Unveils New AI Chip Tech to Challenge Nvidia’s Lead – Bloomberg.com

    China says US TikTok deal a ‘win-win’, will review app’s technology and IP transfers – Reuters

    China Hails US TikTok Deal as a ‘Win-Win’ While Launching Review of App’s Technology and IP Transfers

    Bucking the Odds: Why Technology Companies Should Embrace Software Patents Today – Crowell & Moring LLP

    Bucking the Odds: Why Technology Companies Should Embrace Software Patents Today – Crowell & Moring LLP

    City IT presented Best of North Carolina Technology Award – RaleighNC.gov

    City IT Honored with Best of North Carolina Technology Award

    LELO Releases 2025 Futurist Report: Intergenerational Views on Relationships, Sex, and Technology – PR Newswire

    Exploring the Future: How Different Generations View Relationships, Sex, and Technology in 2025

    Will New Big Technology Engagements Reshape Innodata’s Growth Path? – Yahoo Finance

    Could New Major Tech Partnerships Propel Innodata to Unprecedented Growth?

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Massive Attack Say They’ll Remove Music From Spotify – yahoo.com

    Massive Attack Announces Plans to Pull Their Music from Spotify

    REO to return for UI homecoming – The News-Gazette

    REO Gears Up to Ignite the Stage at UI Homecoming Celebration!

    Gen V Season 2: What is The Odessa Project? – yahoo.com

    Gen V Season 2: Unlocking the Secrets of The Odessa Project

    PENN Entertainment stock rating reiterated at Market Outperform by JMP – Investing.com

    PENN Entertainment Stock Rated a Market Outperformer by Experts

    Here’s how NJ’s once-vibrant nightclub scene was born and why it died – Bergen Record

    The Rise and Fall of New Jersey’s Once-Vibrant Nightclub Scene: What Happened?

    The Emmys are back: Viewership soars to highest numbers in 4 years – yahoo.com

    The Emmys Return with a Bang: Viewership Hits a 4-Year High

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Huawei Unveils New AI Chip Tech to Challenge Nvidia’s Lead – Bloomberg.com

    Huawei Unveils New AI Chip Tech to Challenge Nvidia’s Lead – Bloomberg.com

    China says US TikTok deal a ‘win-win’, will review app’s technology and IP transfers – Reuters

    China Hails US TikTok Deal as a ‘Win-Win’ While Launching Review of App’s Technology and IP Transfers

    Bucking the Odds: Why Technology Companies Should Embrace Software Patents Today – Crowell & Moring LLP

    Bucking the Odds: Why Technology Companies Should Embrace Software Patents Today – Crowell & Moring LLP

    City IT presented Best of North Carolina Technology Award – RaleighNC.gov

    City IT Honored with Best of North Carolina Technology Award

    LELO Releases 2025 Futurist Report: Intergenerational Views on Relationships, Sex, and Technology – PR Newswire

    Exploring the Future: How Different Generations View Relationships, Sex, and Technology in 2025

    Will New Big Technology Engagements Reshape Innodata’s Growth Path? – Yahoo Finance

    Could New Major Tech Partnerships Propel Innodata to Unprecedented Growth?

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Technology

Webb Telescope Sees Tantalising Molecular Signals on Possible Water World

September 16, 2023
in Technology
Webb Telescope Sees Tantalising Molecular Signals on Possible Water World
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The Webb Space Telescope recently turned its focus to a nearby exoplanet and found that it may be a Hycean world, or a world completely covered in a single global ocean, and with a hydrogen atmosphere. And what’s more, the telescope detected a possible detection—note, possible detection, of dimethyl sulphide, a molecule only known to be produced on Earth by living organisms.

The exoplanet is K2-18 b, a world nearly nine times Earth’s size orbiting a star some 120 light-years from Earth. Webb has observed signs of water vapour on exoplanets before, but never an exoplanet that looks to be covered in water oceans.

Webb—launched in December 2021 and taking scientific data of the cosmos since July 2022—did not discover the exoplanet; it was first spotted in 2015 by NASA’s K2 mission.

K2-18 b lies in its star’s habitable zone, meaning the world is at the distance from its star necessary for liquid water to persist on the exoplanet’s surface. Since water is necessary for life as we know it, it is the primary hurdle for exoplanets to meet the our current sensibilities as to what’s meant by habitable. Another hurdle is the exoplanet’s temperature; it’s possible that K2-18 b is too hot for any of its oceans to sustain life, or even be liquid, according to a NASA release.

In its benchmark decadal survey on astronomy and astrophysics, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine stressed the importance of finding habitable worlds. Webb is a crucial part of that search and NASA has already drawn up plans for the still-juvenile Webb’s successor in that search, the Habitable Worlds Observatory. But that mission won’t launch for at least a decade, leaving Webb (and the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb’s still-operational predecessor) to do plenty of exoplanetary legwork.

Hubble observed the recently observed exoplanet back in 2019 and found signs that the planet’s atmosphere contained water vapour. The Webb observations go a step further. The telescope’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) and Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instruments took spectra of K2-18 b, by seeing how much starlight was impeded in the exoplanet’s atmosphere as it passed in front of its star.

A graphic showing detections of several molecules in K2-18 b’s atmosphere.

Webb discerned the presence of carbon-bearing molecules like methane and carbon dioxide, but little ammonia, on the planet. That chemical composition suggests that K2-18 b may contain a water ocean beneath its hydrogen atmosphere. Analysis of the candidate Hycean world is hosted on the preprint server arXiv and is accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“Our findings underscore the importance of considering diverse habitable environments in the search for life elsewhere,” said Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and the study’s lead author, in the NASA release. “Traditionally, the search for life on exoplanets has focused primarily on smaller rocky planets, but the larger Hycean worlds are significantly more conducive to atmospheric observations.”

Webb also detected what looked like dimethyl sulphide (DMS) in the planet’s atmosphere. On Earth, dimethyl sulphide is produced by living things, and most of our planet’s atmospheric DMS is produced by marine phytoplankton. “Upcoming Webb observations should be able to confirm if DMS is indeed present in the atmosphere of K2-18 b at significant levels,” Madhusudhan added.

Madhusudhan added that the data collected by Webb in just two observations of K2-18 b are equivalent to eight observations done with Hubble, thanks to the newer space observatory’s sensitivity and the range of wavelengths at which it observes.

Follow-up observations of the Hycean candidate will be conducted using Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. While the detection of dimethyl sulphide is very tentative, K2-18 b is increasingly showing signs it is a water world with potential—if not for astrobiological reasons, for better understanding the types of habitable worlds in our nearby universe.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Gizmodo (AU) – https://gizmodo.com.au/2023/09/webb-telescope-sees-tantalising-molecular-signals-on-possible-water-world/

Tags: Tantalisingtechnologytelescope
Previous Post

The Cheapest iPhone 15, Plus, Pro and Pro Max Plans in Australia

Next Post

The Most Interesting iPhone 15 Features Most People Missed

Simons Collaborations in Ecology and Evolution – Simons Foundation

Innovative Breakthroughs in Ecology and Evolution Through Collaborative Research

September 19, 2025
Michigan Science Center’s vertical wind tunnel demonstration – CBS News

Experience the Thrill of Michigan Science Center’s Vertical Wind Tunnel Demonstration!

September 19, 2025
Roane State and TCAT Knoxville celebrate ‘Countdown to Grand Opening’ for Knox Regional Health Science Education Center – WVLT

Roane State and TCAT Knoxville Kick Off Exciting Countdown to Grand Opening of Knox Regional Health Science Education Center

September 19, 2025
Huawei Unveils New AI Chip Tech to Challenge Nvidia’s Lead – Bloomberg.com

Huawei Unveils New AI Chip Tech to Challenge Nvidia’s Lead – Bloomberg.com

September 19, 2025
Klutch Sports Group Signs Maria Taylor – Variety

Klutch Sports Group Scores Big with Star Broadcaster Maria Taylor Joining the Team

September 18, 2025
Historic chills fit in nicely at Old World Wisconsin’s Halloween special program – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Historic chills fit in nicely at Old World Wisconsin’s Halloween special program – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

September 18, 2025
The Economy Is Turning Into a Black Box – The Atlantic

The Economy Is Turning Into a Black Box – The Atlantic

September 18, 2025
Massive Attack Say They’ll Remove Music From Spotify – yahoo.com

Massive Attack Announces Plans to Pull Their Music from Spotify

September 18, 2025
Ex-UC Health doctor who performed genital ultrasounds in his apartment sentenced to jail – Cincinnati Enquirer

Former UC Health Doctor Sentenced to Jail for Performing Genital Ultrasounds in His Apartment

September 18, 2025
Readers respond: Politics should avoid zero-sum game – OregonLive.com

Readers Respond: Why Politics Must Move Beyond the Zero-Sum Game

September 18, 2025

Categories

Archives

September 2025
MTWTFSS
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930 
« Aug    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (826)
  • Economy (845)
  • Entertainment (21,724)
  • General (17,113)
  • Health (9,890)
  • Lifestyle (859)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (850)
  • Politics (855)
  • Science (16,056)
  • Sports (21,345)
  • Technology (15,828)
  • World (829)

Recent News

Simons Collaborations in Ecology and Evolution – Simons Foundation

Innovative Breakthroughs in Ecology and Evolution Through Collaborative Research

September 19, 2025
Michigan Science Center’s vertical wind tunnel demonstration – CBS News

Experience the Thrill of Michigan Science Center’s Vertical Wind Tunnel Demonstration!

September 19, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version