THE James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first-ever exoplanet – a distant world hidden by the glare of its nearest star.
The landmark discovery marks a new era for alien-hunters, according to a new study from the Paris Observatory and the University Grenoble Alpes, published in Nature today.
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The newly discovered exoplanet, named TWA 7 b, is in the debris disk of a young star.
These disks are made up of dust and small rocks that are left over after a planet has formed.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been floating in space since 2021, and is now just over 1million miles away from Earth.
For scale, that’s more than 4.5 times the distance between our planet and the Moon.
While it has detected other planets – these have all be previously known to astronomers on the ground.
TWA 7 b is pretty big and is a similar size to Saturn, the second largest planet in our solar system.
However, it still could have been easily missed, as researchers say it is one of the lightest planets ever detected.
JWST’s keen eye is set to enable scientists to capture images of less massive planets that are more comparable to Earth in size.
While thousands of exoplanets – planets outside of our solar system – have been discovered, getting pictures of them still proves tricky.
Many exoplanets lurk in the shadows of their nearest star, and therefore don’t stand out enough to be visible, according to researchers.
However, a French-produced coronagraph onboard the JWST – a tool used to block the light of a star to see nearby planets – made the new discovery possible.
While it doesn’t provide a direct picture of the planet, you can see its effects in the circles labelled CC #1 in the image.
By masking the star, scientists have better hope of observing the objects surrounding it.
The James Webb Space Telescope: an overview
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space-based observatory that is designed to complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope.
It is named after James E. Webb, who was the administrator of Nasa from 1961 to 1968 and played a pivotal role in the Apollo program.
JWST is equipped with a 6.5-meter primary mirror, which is significantly larger than Hubble’s 2.4-meter mirror, allowing it to observe much fainter objects at greater distances.
It operates in the infrared spectrum, which enables it to peer through dust clouds that obscure visible light and to observe the earliest galaxies that formed after the Big Bang.
The telescope was launched on 25th December 2021 and is positioned at the second Lagrange point (L2), approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
This location provides a stable environment with minimal interference from Earth’s heat and light.
JWST’s scientific goals include studying the formation of stars and planets, understanding the evolution of galaxies, and investigating the potential for life in other parts of the universe.
It is a collaborative project involving Nasa, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
The debris disk surrounding TWA 7’s star is very clear, coming up a bright whiteish yellow in the image.
It forms a near perfect disk, except for the top right corner along the R2 dotted line.
It’s here where the exoplanet is hiding, nearly completely obscured by the brightness of its star and nearby debris.
Finding new planets in the universe helps astronomers on Earth understand more about how solar systems like ours came to be.
All you need to know about planets in our solar system
Our solar system is made up of nine planets with Earth the third closest to the Sun. But each planet has its own quirks, so find out more about them all…
- How old is Earth? Plus other facts on our planet
- How many moons does Mercury have?
- What colour is Venus?
- How far away is Mars to Earth? And other facts on the red planet
- How big is Jupiter?
- How many moons does Saturn have?
- Does Uranus have rings?
- How many moons does Neptune have?
- How big is Pluto?
- How hot is the Sun?
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