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Five years ago, NASA’s infrared Spitzer Space Telescope helped discover a family of seven rocky exoplanets orbiting the same star, known as TRAPPIST-1. Now, NASA’s new infrared powerhouse — the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) — measured the temperature of one of those worlds, TRAPPIST-1b, in new research published in the journal Nature (opens in new tab) . 

The bad news: The Earth-like planet is almost certainly uninhabitable.

Astronomers used JWST’s mid-infrared camera, called MIRI, to look for the planet’s thermal emission — think heat-sensing “Terminator” vision. They found that TRAPPIST-1b is scorching — about 450 degrees Fahrenheit (232 degrees Celsius), about the temperature of an oven — and that it likely lacks an atmosphere.

The discovery is another record-breaking first for the JWST, which has been steadily producing newsworthy results since its launch. 

Related: 25 jaw-dropping James Webb Space Telescope images 

“This is the first detection of any form of light emitted by an exoplanet as small and as cool as the rocky planets in our own solar system,” NASA officials said in a statement (opens in new tab) .

“No previous telescopes have had the sensitivity to measure such dim mid-infrared light,” Thomas Greene (opens in new tab) , a NASA astrophysicist and lead author of the new work, said in the statement. 

The initial discovery of the seven TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets spurred great excitement in the astronomical community, since all of the distant worlds are about the size of Earth and are located in their star’s habitable zone, the region that’s just the right distance from a star for liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface. This system is “a great laboratory” and “the best targets we have for looking at the atmospheres of rocky planets,” study co-author Elsa Ducrot (opens in new tab) , an astronomer with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), said in the statement.

Don’t get too excited about a new world for humans yet, though — the TRAPPIST-1 planets are out of our current reach, at a whopping 235 trillion miles (378 trillion kilometers) away. They’re also orbiting a star much smaller and redder than our sun, known as an M dwarf star.

“There are ten times as many of these stars in the Milky Way as there are stars like the sun, and they are twice as likely to have rocky planets as stars like the sun,” Greene said. 

These abundant M dwarfs are obvious targets for astronomers seeking habitable planets, and it’s conveniently easier to observe rocky planets around these smaller stars. There’s one catch, though: M dwarfs are much more active than our sun, often flaring and spewing high-energy rays that could be damaging to budding extraterrestrial life or to a planet’s atmosphere.related stories—Monster black hole may have killed this galaxy’s star-forming power, James Webb Telescope reveals

—The James Webb Telescope detected the coldest ice in the known universe – and it contains the building blocks of life

—James Webb Space Telescope captures star going supernova in a dazzling cloud of dust

Previous observations of TRAPPIST-1b weren’t sensitive enough to determine if it had an atmosphere after all, or if it was a barren rock. The planet is tidally locked to its star, meaning one side always faces its star and the other is stuck in perpetual night. Simulations suggest that if this world had an atmosphere, the planet’s temperature would be lower, as the air would redistribute the heat around both sides. The JWST recorded a significantly hotter temperature, though — indicating no atmosphere and knocking one more planet off humanity’s list of possibly habitable worlds.

The real excitement here, however, isn’t really the specifics of TRAPPIST-1b. Instead, the crucial takeaway is that the JWST is capable of these kinds of measurements and will continue to make more of them, exploring the atmospheres and temperatures of many other worlds.

“There was one target that I dreamed of having, and it was this one,” study co-author Pierre-Olivier Lagage (opens in new tab) , also with CEA, said in the statement. Lagage is one of the developers of MIRI, the instrument that made these observations. “This is the first time we can detect the emission from a rocky, temperate planet. It’s a really important step in the story of discovering exoplanets.”

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Elon Musk steps up attacks on Trump once again – as the president fights back

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Elon Musk steps up attacks on Trump once again - as the president fights back

Elon Musk has stepped up his attacks on Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill – weeks after a spectacular fallout between the world’s richest man and the US president.

Following weeks of relative silence after clashing with Mr Trump over his “big beautiful bill”, the billionaire vowed to unseat politicians who support it.

In a post on X, Musk said those who had campaigned on cutting spending but then backed the bill “should hang their heads in shame”.

He added: “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”

Musk also threatened to put their faces on a poster which said “liar” and “voted to increase America’s debt” by $5trn (£3.6trn).

The posts attracted a swift reply from Mr Trump, who claimed the billionaire “may get more subsidy than any human being in history” for his electric car business.

“Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”

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Elon’s dad on the Musk-Trump bust-up

Musk spent at least $250m (£182m) supporting Mr Trump in his presidential campaign and then led the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which sacked about 120,000 federal employees.

He has argued the legislation would greatly increase the US national debt and wipe out the savings he claimed he achieved through DOGE.

As the Senate discussed the package, Musk called it “utterly insane and destructive”.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said the bill’s massive spending indicated “we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”

“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” he wrote.

Read more from Sky News:
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Musk previously said some of his social media posts during his dramatic fallout with Mr Trump “went too far”.

He had shared a series of posts on X, including one that described Mr Trump’s tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination”.

He also claimed, in a since-deleted post, that the president appeared in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

But Musk later wrote: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”

In response, the president told the New York Post: “I thought it was very nice that he did that.”

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What’s in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’?

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What's in Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill'?

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Martha Kelner and Mark Stone break down what’s in Donald Trump’s huge tax and spending bill. He’s trying to sign it into law by the end of the week.

They also discuss the State Department’s decision to revoke US visas for British band Bob Vylan after their Glastonbury performance.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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Major German bank to offer crypto trading by 2026 amid bank ‘FOMO’

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Major German bank to offer crypto trading by 2026 amid bank ‘FOMO’

Major German bank to offer crypto trading by 2026 amid bank ‘FOMO’

Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe execs once ruled out adopting crypto over concerns of volatility and risk, and the banking giant also blocked customer crypto transactions back in 2015.

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