The observatory will focus on planets we sometimes can't find close to home.
these worlds might be and how they form. A key challenge is there are no planets like these that scientists can study close to home, so Batalha and her colleagues will turn Webb's powerful vision to a suite of super-Earths in hopes of unlocking a few insights.
The super-Earths research isn't the only exoplanets project that Ames scientists have planned for Webb's first year; NASA highlighted two other investigations set for early stage studies by Webb. The first is a study on nine planets that are less massive and cooler than better-studied worlds, led by Ames astrophysicist Thomas Greene. The second, which includes participation by Batalha, zeroes in on two planets in theFor these latter two studies, Webb will work to determine whether a planet has an atmosphere at all, and if so, what it is made of.
"A planet's atmosphere is essential for the possibility of life as we know it," said Greene in the same NASA statement."We've developed Webb's instruments to be able to give us the data we need to not only detect atmospheres, but to determine what they are made of." Webb will also collect the spectrum of each of these planets, to see the type of light it emits. This in turn gives clues about what gases are in the atmosphere."The study will focus on the planet's infrared emissions and search for signs of carbon dioxide.
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