Breaking: A research team analyzing early data from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed the instrument’s initial images of a planet beyond our Solar System.
The newly imaged young gas giant, seven times the mass of Jupiter, is captured still glowing hot after its formation. The planet’s infrared emissions traveled 350 light-years before the photons were gathered by Webb’s gold-plated mirrors. In a paper, the Webb astronomers exhibit several images of the planet, called HIP 65426 b, at a range of wavelengths that have heretofore been invisible to Earthbound telescopes because of our planet’s infrared-blocking atmosphere.
Even for space telescopes, it is extremely difficult to image exoplanets directly because of the overwhelming glare of their stars. Astronomers using both ground- and space-based instruments have only directly imaged about 20 exoplanets before this—including HIP 65426 b, which was first discovered in 2017—by relying on an optical mask to block out the blinding starlight .
Webb, with its much larger mirror and state-of-the-art sensors, is expected to see these exoplanets much more clearly than its predecessor, the 32-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, which is sensitive to mostly visible wavelengths. HIP 65426 b was chosen for this first exoplanet observation to show off Webb’s capabilities.
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