![An illustration of the rocky, Earth-like planet TRAPPIST 1-b, with its small red sun blazing in the distance. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI))](https://www.limfic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-7.46.56-AM.jpg)
Five years ago, NASA’s infrared Spitzer Space Telescope helped discover a family of seven rocky exoplanets orbiting the same star, known as TRAPPIST-1. Now, NASA’s new infrared powerhouse — the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) — measured the temperature of one of those worlds, TRAPPIST-1b, in new research published in the journal Nature.
The bad news: The Earth-like planet is almost certainly uninhabitable.
Astronomers used JWST’s mid-infrared camera, called MIRI, to look for the planet’s thermal emission — think heat-sensing “Terminator” vision. They found that TRAPPIST-1b is scorching — about 450 degrees Fahrenheit (232 degrees Celsius), about the temperature of an oven — and that it likely lacks an atmosphere.
“Writer Fuel” is a series of cool real-world stories that might inspire your little writer heart. Check out our Writer Fuel page on the LimFic blog for more inspiration.