James Webb discovered its first exoplanet  

It is the same size as Earth

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has already provided a wealth of information in its short time in operation, exciting the scientific community. Now, it has achieved another milestone in its operation, detecting its first exoplanet . 

That’s LHS 475b, which is just 41 light-years from Earth in the constellation Oktas and happens to be about the same size as Earth, being 99% its diameter.

The planet is a few hundred degrees hotter than Earth – with surface temperatures reaching 300 degrees Celsius – and quite close to its star, completing an orbit around it every two days. However, the star is a red dwarf and is much cooler than our own Sun, which makes scientists think the planet may have an atmosphere. The location of the planet was confirmed by the observation of two passes in front of its star.

There is no doubt that the planet is there. Webb’s valuable data confirms this.

The data indicate that it is a rocky planet like Earth, but the composition or existence of its atmosphere remains a mystery. A mystery that astronomers intend to solve with more observations. It is possible that any atmosphere has disappeared due to its proximity to the star, but it is also possible that it hides a thin atmosphere near the surface. An atmosphere consisting of 100% carbon dioxide would be much more concentrated and difficult to detect. But there are certain types of atmospheres that scientists can rule out as of now, such as a methane atmosphere. If clouds are discovered in subsequent observations, it probably has a strong greenhouse effect like we have on Venus.