The Webb Telescope Found A Planet Orbiting A Star 35 Light Years Away — Its Data Is Just Plain Odd

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A recent study suggests an exoplanet orbiting daringly close to its small star may have a thick atmosphere, but there's reason to be skeptical.

Recent data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggests that a planet orbiting a small, red star 35 light years away may have a thick, sulfurous atmosphere, fueled by constant volcanic eruptions. Other astronomers say it's too soon to tell.

The data, and the debate, shed light on how difficult it still is to make sense of the atmospheres of distant exoplanets. Banerjee and colleagues published their work in The Astrophysical Journal Letters .

Here in our own Solar System, Jupiter's moon Io boasts hundreds of volcanoes which constantly spew fire and gases into the vacuum of space surrounding the moon. The inner fire that fuels this constant state of apocalypse comes from tidal forces powerful enough to pull on the very rock that makes up Io, keeping its interior hot, molten, and unsettled. And those tidal forces are the result of a strange alignment, called an orbital resonance, between Io and its sibling moons: Every time Io makes two orbits around Jupiter, it aligns with Europa; every fourth orbit, Io aligns with Europa and Ganymede.

"Since L 98-59 d is also possibly tidally heated and tidal heating could lead to volcanoes, which could then lead to SO2, we can draw this comparison between the two bodies," says Banerjee. "The atmosphere of L 98-59 d, if it is indeed what the current data suggests, would be much thicker and heavier than that on Io.

According to Banerjee and colleagues, that could drive enough volcanism to blanket the planet in sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.

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