{"id":2000112790,"date":"2026-05-22T11:22:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T09:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/?p=2000112790"},"modified":"2026-05-22T11:09:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T09:09:53","slug":"james-webb-telescope-discovers-rare-giant-planet-with-earth-like-temperatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/james-webb-telescope-discovers-rare-giant-planet-with-earth-like-temperatures\/","title":{"rendered":"James Webb telescope discovers rare giant planet with Earth-like temperatures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The planet, known as TOI-199b, is about the size of Saturn and orbits a star located more than 330 light years from Earth. The findings were published in the Astronomical Journal on May 20 by researchers from Penn State and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world\u2019s most powerful space telescope. Launched in 2021, it was designed to study distant planets, stars and galaxies using advanced infrared technology that can detect heat and light invisible to human eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists said giant planets are usually either extremely cold, like Jupiter and Saturn, or extremely hot planets known as \u201chot Jupiters\u201d that orbit very close to their stars. However, TOI-199b falls somewhere in between, making it a rare \u201ctemperate\u201d giant planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers estimate the planet\u2019s temperature at around 175 degrees Fahrenheit. While still too hot for humans, it is much cooler than many giant planets previously discovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the James Webb telescope, scientists studied the planet\u2019s atmosphere as it passed in front of its star. By analyzing how the starlight changed, they identified gases present in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to researcher Aaron Bello-Arufe from NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the telescope detected methane, while signs of ammonia and carbon dioxide were also observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists say studying planets like TOI-199b could improve understanding of how planets and atmospheres form and evolve, including Earth\u2019s own atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Artist’s impression of a gas giant planet orbiting its distant host star. New research, led by astronomers at Penn State and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, used NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope to analyze the atmosphere of a gas giant planet about the size of Saturn but with Earth-like temperatures and found it to be rich in methane. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astronomers using NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a rare giant planet with temperatures surprisingly closer to those on Earth than on most other giant planets found in space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000112791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000112790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":{"id":2000112791,"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ftr.jpg","alt":"","caption":"Artist's impression of a gas giant planet orbiting its distant host star. New research, led by astronomers at Penn State and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, used NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope to analyze the atmosphere of a gas giant planet about the size of Saturn but with Earth-like temperatures and found it to be rich in methane. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":1000,"height":563,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ftr.jpg","width":150,"height":84},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ftr.jpg","width":300,"height":169},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ftr.jpg","width":768,"height":432},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ftr.jpg","width":1000,"height":563},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ftr.jpg","width":1000,"height":563}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000112790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000112790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000112790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000112792,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000112790\/revisions\/2000112792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000112791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000112790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000112790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000112790"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000112790"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000112790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}