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Exoplanets are the celestial bodies orbiting stars other than our Sun. Their small size makes them difficult to detect from Earth, particularly as they appear much dimmer than their parent stars. So indirect methods are employed, such as observing changes in starlight as a result of the exoplanet and its motion.
Phase-curve observations of the ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet WASP-43b, made at mid-infrared wavelengths using JWST, provide evidence that fast winds limit the formation of methane on the cooler, cloudy nightside of the planet.
The SPECULOOS project detected an Earth-sized planet in a short orbit around a nearby Jupiter-sized star. This planet, SPECULOOS-3 b, is one of the most promising rocky exoplanets for detailed emission spectroscopy characterization with JWST.
Precise mass and radius measurements of giant planet WASP-193 b find an extremely low density of 0.059 ± 0.014 g cm−3. Current evolutionary models cannot fully explain such a low density, but the extended atmosphere makes WASP-193 b very suitable for high-precision characterization via JWST.
V1298 Tau b is a 20–30-Myr-old Jovian-sized planet with a haze-free, metal-poor atmosphere and a potentially hot interior. These properties suggest that V1298 Tau b formed in situ via pebble accretion and that it is still evolving and likely to become a Neptune- or sub-Neptune-sized planet.
An updated Jeans parameter that includes tidal forces can distinguish the various driving forces, both exogenous and endogenous, of atmospheric escape from low-mass close-in exoplanets. Depending on its value, escape can be dominated by tidal forces, extreme ultraviolet stellar radiation or a combination of the two.
Phase-curve observations of the ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet WASP-43b, made at mid-infrared wavelengths using JWST, provide evidence that fast winds limit the formation of methane on the cooler, cloudy nightside of the planet.
Kepler-1625b-I and Kepler-1708b-I are the most noteworthy exomoon candidates to date. A new analysis of the available data comes to a different conclusion.