Webb Can Detect Planets Orbiting White Dwarfs, And Maybe Even See Signs of Life - by ET_Exists
“On the other hand, white dwarfs, the remnants of dead stars, are much smaller than the Sun,” said Limbach. “In fact, the size of a white dwarf is about the same as Earth. In the infrared a white dwarf is only about 100 times brighter than an Earth analog. Also, most white dwarfs do not have star spots or flares, but rather remain at constant brightness over time.
Using this method, the researchers discovered JWST was capable of detecting the infrared excess of cold gas-giant exoplanets orbiting white dwarfs withing 15 parsecs from Earth, along with temperate or hot terrestrial exoplanets, which include both Earth- and Mercury-analogs, within 10 parsecs from Earth. The study also discusses how follow-up spectroscopy observations using MIRI can be utilized to search for biosignatures on terrestrial worlds within the habitable zones of white dwarfs.
“Transit spectroscopy, which is a method for characterizing the atmospheres of exoplanets, is another method that has been proposed to search for biosignatures with JWST,” explains Limbach. “Other research papers have explored using this technique for white dwarfs and M-dwarf stars . Using JWST transit spectroscopy, it would take hundreds of hours to detect biosignatures on the Trappist-1 planets, the most favorable M-dwarf for these observations.
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