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NASA's Webb detects water vapor but source remains a mystery

Shortpedia

Content Team
Image Credit: NASA

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected hints of water vapor but researchers are not sure, as yet, if the signals are from a rocky planet or the star it orbits. The exoplanet, GJ 486 b, lies too close to its host star to have an atmosphere, but Webb's finding suggests the opposite—challenging everything we know about exoplanets and their atmospheres.