The James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed the first Earth-like exoplanet

It is possible that it has the atmosphere of Venus, that is, it contains a large amount of carbon dioxide and dense clouds.

astronomers on United States of America They confirmed for the first time with his help James Webb Space Telescope The presence of an exoplanet nearby. This is the rocky LHS 475b, which is roughly the size of Earth (99% of its diameter), while only 41 light-years away in the constellation of Octadus.

This was announced by researchers from the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore at a conference of the American Astronomical Society. The initial detection of this exoplanet was made by NASA’s TESS space telescope and its confirmation was followed by new observations by the more powerful Webb telescope.

Of all the telescopes, James Webb is the only one that can study the atmospheres of Earth-sized exoplanets. However, it is not yet known if LHS 475b has an atmosphere and what kind. More accurate measurements will follow with a telescope.

Since Webb has already found that this exoplanet is several hundred degrees warmer than Earth, it is possible that it has a Venusian atmosphere, that is, it contains a large amount of carbon dioxide and dense clouds. The planet completes a complete revolution around its star in only two days (the length of its year), as it moves very close to its star, which is a red dwarf half the temperature of the sun.