The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
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Astronomers Warn of Risk of Misinterpreting JWST Planetary Signals

  • Astronomers risk misinterpreting planetary signals in James Webb Space Telescope data if models to interpret the data don’t improve, an MIT study finds. In this conceptual image, the James Webb telescope captures light from around a newly-discovered planet (on left). However, when scientists analyze this data, limitations in opacity models could produce planetary predictions that are off by an order of magnitude (represented by 3 possible planets on the right).
    Astronomers risk misinterpreting planetary signals in James Webb Space Telescope data if models to interpret the data don’t improve, an MIT study finds. In this conceptual image, the James Webb telescope captures light from around a newly-discovered planet (on left). However, when scientists analyze this data, limitations in opacity models could produce planetary predictions that are off by an order of magnitude (represented by 3 possible planets on the right).
    Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT. James Webb icon courtesy of NASA.

    Low Resolution Image