James Webb Space Telescope reserved by teams to spot Earth 2.0 & Jupiter-like exoplanets

The James Webb Space Telescope, right from its debut, detected signs of water on an exoplanet located roughly 1,324 light years away from Earth. Named WASP-17b, this planet is a gas giant that orbits its star extremely closely due to which a year on this planet lasts just 3.7 days. 

Astronomer Nikole K. Lewis from Cornell University’s Carl Sagan Institute has plans to use this characteristic of the planet to observe it in more detail. According to a report by Cornell University, Lewis has been allotted 130 hours of observational time to study different kinds of exoplanets scattered across the universe. 

She is also part of a group that would carry out 200 to 300 hours worth of observations to investigate specific exoplanets ranging in size from Jupiter to Earth. But even if her team fails to make any significant discovery in the said time, there are many other teams waiting for their shot at the telescope. The teams are selected through NASA's JWST Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) programme, which promises 16% use of the observatory over its first 3 cycles of operation.

Prospect of finding Earth 2.0

"By looking at different types of planets in different environments we can start to tease out why they are the way they are,” Lewis said as per Cornell's report. "That can help build the context for maybe finding Earth 2.0 someday". Lewis says that the exoplanet WASP-17b is one of her favourite exoplanets and her team will observe the planet when it is in front of its star and will also measure the directly emerging light to study the planet's chemistry. 

The light reflected from the planets would be studied using Webb's spectrograph instruments that divide the light into various spectrums. These spectrums detected by the telescope would carry chemical fingerprints for molecules like water, carbon dioxide, methane, and others.

"And we look for aerosols—or clouds and hazes—which give very specific signatures as a function of locations on the planet and also at different wavelengths", Lewis explained. Webb is the perfect telescope to make such discoveries as it is extremely sensitive to infrared light, which cannot be seen but can be felt as heat. Moreover, infrared is also considered the best to study planets because the planets glow brightly in this wavelength of light. 

Explaining the importance of finding Earth 2.0, she said that it would answer fundamental questions such as "How did we get here? Are we alone? Are there other planets out there like ours?"