JWST found methane on a Saturn-sized world with Earth-like temperatures
TOI-199b sits about 330 light-years from Earth, orbits a Sun-like star every 105 days, and holds an equilibrium temperature of roughly 352 K (79°C). That’s warm by terrestrial standards but downright mild for an exoplanet, where “hot Jupiter” atmospheres regularly top 1,500 K. A team led by Aaron Bello-Arufe at Penn State pointed JWST at a single transit of this world and pulled methane out of its atmosphere, making TOI-199b the first temperate giant exoplanet whose atmospheric composition has been directly measured. ...