科學家首次在巖石超級地球上發(fā)現大氣層

UNM Physics and Astronomy Assistant Professor Diana Dragomir was part of the recent study, though she was already well-acquainted with the exoplanet after contributing to the discovery of its transits in her doctoral thesis. Exoplanet 55 Cancri e’s density and heat have long led to complex questions for her and others who study exoplanets.
新墨西哥大學物理和天文學助理教授戴安娜·德拉戈米爾（Diana Dragomir）參與了最近的研究，盡管她在博士論文中為發(fā)現凌日現象做出了貢獻，但她已經對這顆系外行星非常熟悉了。系外行星 55 Cancri e 的密度和熱量長期以來一直給她和其他研究系外行星的人帶來復雜的問題。

“Ever since its discovery, this planet has defied multiple attempts at understanding its properties and composition. This discovery is the clearest piece of information we have obtained so far for 55 Cancri e,” Dragomir said.
“自從發(fā)現這顆行星以來，人們多次嘗試了解它的性質和成分。這一發(fā)現是我們迄今為止獲得的關于 55 Cancri e 的最清晰的信息。”德拉戈米爾說。

The discovery would not be possible without the James Webb Space Telescope, which allows researchers to study exoplanets with greater precision than ever before. The team used images from the Webb telescope to analyze light emitted by the exoplanet and its star. To do that, they first had to translate the images into light spectra. They then compared the observations to spectra created from different combinations of elements and molecules to hypothesize what potential atmospheric compositions the exoplanet might have. This study is among the first to use data from the Webb telescope for this kind of investigation and the models used in the study could provide future researchers with a process to complete similar work for other exoplanets.
如果沒有詹姆斯·韋伯太空望遠鏡，這一發(fā)現就不可能實現，它使研究人員能夠比以往更精確地研究系外行星。該團隊使用韋伯望遠鏡的圖像來分析這顆系外行星及其恒星發(fā)出的光。為此，他們首先必須將圖像轉換為光譜。然后，他們將觀測結果與由元素和分子的不同組合創(chuàng)建的光譜進行比較，以假設系外行星可能具有哪些潛在的大氣成分。這項研究是首批使用韋伯望遠鏡數據進行此類調查的研究之一，研究中使用的模型可以為未來的研究人員提供完成其他系外行星類似工作的過程。