Webb Telescope Examines Enigmatic Sub-Neptune Planet

The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed that the enigmatic planet GJ 1214b is less hot than expected and surprisingly shiny. The planet is bigger than rocky planets like Earth but smaller than any of our system's ice or gas giants. The telescope detected infrared light, which showed that the planet must be highly reflective and able to scatter back about half of the incoming energy. Scientists are now trying to understand what the clouds or hazes in the atmosphere are made of. The planet's atmosphere is not hydrogen-rich, suggesting it's not just a scaled-down Neptune, and there was evidence of water vapor and methane.