NASA Webb Looks at Earth-Sized, Habitable-Zone Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e

September 08, 2025 10:00AM (EDT)Release ID: 2025-109
Illustration of a star with multiple flares and four small orbiting planets. Star is off center to the lower right, with a silhouetted planet to its lower right. A smaller planet is shown an inch to the left, also silhouetted. A third planet is directly to the left of the star, gray and white but without much detail, and farther out near the left edge of the image is the fourth planet, also gray with little detail.

Summary

While an original atmosphere is unlikely, scientists are narrowing possibilities for TRAPPIST-1 e’s secondary atmosphere, even as Webb observations of the exoplanet continue.

Exoplanet scientists are working their way through the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven Earth-sized worlds with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, demonstrating its unprecedented ability to capture detailed information about exoplanet atmospheres and learning to work with that data. The first results are now in from Webb’s observations of planet e, which orbits in its host star’s “Goldilocks zone” (also called a habitable zone), where it is neither too hot nor too cold but potentially just right for liquid water on the planet’s surface. That is, if there is also an atmosphere providing the pressure necessary for water to maintain a stable liquid state. While the initial four observations by Webb are not enough to confirm an atmosphere, scientists are using the data to narrow possibilities for the planet, including possibilities such as a global surface ocean or a methane-enriched environment similar to Saturn’s moon Titan. Meanwhile, additional, innovative Webb observations are underway that will eventually show which type of world TRAPPIST-1 e turns out to be. 

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