SCIENCE LAB SCOPES : DASHED HOPES

THIRD rock from another sun shows no signs of life so far : In the search for signs of life on what seemed like a promising little exoplanet, hopes have dimmed.

Living things seem to flourish best in an atmosphere like the one on Earth.

But scientists who have been using the James Webb Space Telescope to examine the planet Trappist-1. d have found no signs of earthlike atmosphere, according to study published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Exoplanets revolve around stars other than our sun. And the exoplanet in question is the third of seven that orbit Trappist-1, a star some 40 light-years from our place in the Milky Way.

It is a red dwarf, so named because this type of star emits reddish light and tends to be small.

In the search of life elsewhere in the galaxy, the discovery of the Trappist-1 planetary system was a big deal.

Researchers announced in 2017 that the seven planets around Trappist-1 seemed to have excellent potential as hosts for living things.

The third world from the Trappist-1 star, a rocky planet, had appeared promising, according to Caroline Piaulet- Ghorayeb, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago, and the study's lead author.

But the starlight that passed the exoplanet before reaching the Webb telescope did not appear to have been filtered through the kinds of atmospheric molecules that are essential to life on Earth, like water or carbon dioxide.

Dr. Piaulet - Ghorrayeb's team did not completely rule out the possibility of an atmosphere there.

But it did suggest that cool red dwarves might be too volatile to support life.

The World Students Society thanks Jacey Fortin.