Mysterious Mini-Neptune “GJ 1214 b” Captured in Webb Telescope! Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have managed to obtain new information about a “mini-Neptune” called GJ 1214 b. Here’s what they found.There are important news concerning the James Webb: closely observed a mysterious planet!

A new study based on observations from NASA’s Webb Space Telescope lets us learn more about a mysterious planet called GJ 1214 b. It is a “mini-Neptune” which until now had been undetectable with the telescopes we had available. The planet is too hot to host oceans of liquid water, but water in the form of vapor could be an important part of its atmosphere.

There are no mini-Neptunes in our solar system.

That has largely shrouded them in mystery, even though they are a common exoplanet type in our galaxy. Now Webb has lifted the curtain with the closest look yet at the mini-Neptune GJ 1214 b.

Scientists used Webb’s mid-infrared instrument to track this planet through an entire orbit around its star, allowing the creation of a “heat map.” This heat map revealed a drastic temperature drop from the planet’s day side (535 F or 279 C) to its night side (326 F or 165 C).

That difference in temperature is only possible if the planet’s atmosphere is made up of heavier molecules, such as water or methane (instead of something lighter like hydrogen). One theory is that GJ 1214 b’s atmosphere lost a lot of hydrogen over time, while another is that the planet may have started out as a “water world” farther away from its star.

The planet, GJ 1214 b, is a “mini-Neptune” that was largely impenetrable to previous observations. It is too hot to harbor liquid-water oceans, but water in vaporized form still could be a major part of its atmosphere.

To penetrate the thick atmosphere, the research team tracked GJ 1214 b through nearly its entire orbit around the star, in addition to making the standard observation of capturing the host star’s light that has filtered through the planet’s atmosphere.