Astrophysicists used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to take a closer look at the shooting star. In a new study, an international team of researchers conducted a detailed study of four solar flares that exploded around the star TRAPPIST-1, a small active celestial body located about 40 light-years from Earth. The resulting data could help scientists search for distant planets, or “exoplanets,” that are similar to ours and might even support life.

“Thanks to JWST, for the first time in history, we can look for planets around other stars that have secondary atmospheres of the kind you might find around Earth, Venus, or Mars,” Ward said. Howard is the lead author of the new study and NASA Sagan, a research assistant professor in CU Boulder’s Department of Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences.

However, this hunt can be a bit challenging.

Howard explained that most of the small, rocky worlds that scientists plan to study with the Webb telescope orbit a class of stars called M dwarfs, or red dwarfs. These are some of the most explosive stars in the galaxy. Take TRAPPIST-1, which contains seven known planets. This star is slightly larger than Jupiter, but several times a day it produces large flares, or bursts of bright and powerful energy, sending radiation into space. In contrast, Earth’s sun experiences similar-sized outbursts only once a month.

As a result, watching a planet around a red dwarf can resemble a photo taken with flickering lights at a friend’s dance club.

Howard and his colleagues believe they have found a partial solution in their new research. Using the Webb Telescope, the most advanced telescope ever launched into space, the team recorded a series of flares emitted from TRAPPIST-1 over a period of approximately 27 hours. Researchers have developed a mathematical method to separate the light from these flares from the star’s normal radiation. This is like using a filter to remove glare from a smartphone photo.

Conclusion? Potentially sharper images of planets and their atmospheres.

“If we want to learn more about exoplanets, understanding their stars is really important,” Howard said.

The study was accepted for publication Astrophysical Journal and published online at: arXiv Before printing. The observations used in the study were obtained during the telescope’s first year of operation by Olivia Lim and David Lafreniere of the University of Montreal, as part of a collaboration called the NEAT Collaboration.

precious planets

Scientists have been investigating TRAPPIST-1 for a long time.

Galactically not far from Earth, this star is a planetary goldmine: it contains three small, rocky worlds located in what researchers call the “habitable zone,” a region around the star where water could theoretically exist. of the planet. Astrophysicists are using the Webb telescope to see if they can find traces of the atmosphere around these planets. (Lim did a recent study that found no trace of an atmosphere around a planet in a system called TRAPPIST-1 b).

“There are only a few star systems where we have the ability to search for atmospheres like this,” Howard said. “Each of these planets is truly valuable.”

Howard noted that because exoplanets like the seven TRAPPIST-1 worlds are so distant, astrophysicists can only observe them as they pass in front of their bright stars. But when a star is as chaotic as TRAPPIST-1, his job becomes difficult.

“If you don’t take flares into account, you might find molecules in the atmosphere that aren’t actually there, or you might miscalculate the amount of matter in the atmosphere,” he said.

Sharper observations

That’s one of the reasons why Howard and his colleagues wanted to study TRAPPIST-1 so closely.

Using the Webb telescope, researchers observed for the first time flashes of specific wavelengths of infrared light from a distant star, a type of radiation for which the Webb telescope was specifically tuned. The team’s data captures the evolution of these four flares in exquisite detail as they evolve over several hours, become increasingly brighter, and then peak again and fade out.

The team was also able to distinguish the light from the TRAPPIST-1 flares from the star’s daily glow. Based on this data, the team was able to eliminate approximately 80% of the light from the flares in their observations. Howard noted that the numbers aren’t perfect, but the team’s results will help astrophysicists collect clearer, more accurate data on TRAPPIST-1’s seven planets. And researchers can apply their approach to other similar star systems near Earth.

“With TRAPPIST-1, we have a really great opportunity to see what an Earth-sized planet orbiting a red dwarf would look like,” Howard said.