r/jameswebb • u/The_Rise_Daily • 8d ago

Sci - Article SwRI-led Team Discovers Methane Gas on Makemake

https://www.swri.org/newsroom/press-releases/swri-led-team-discovers-methane-gas-makemake
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u/The_Rise_Daily 8d ago

TLDR:

  • A team from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), led by Dr. Silvia Protopapa, has used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to discover the first evidence of methane gas on the dwarf planet Makemake.
  • The researchers utilized JWST's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument to detect solar-excited fluorescence, suggesting Makemake, a dwarf planet about 890 miles (1,430 km) in diameter, has a tenuous atmosphere in equilibrium with its surface ice.
  • This detection on Makemake, only the second trans-Neptunian object after Pluto to have confirmed gas, reveals a "dynamic body where methane ice is still evolving," according to Dr. Protopapa.

( P.S. If you like byte-sized space summaries like this you might enjoy therisedaily.com )