Researchers have been analyzing the data from these observations and are preparing a paper they will submit to journals for peer review. Webb’s view, at longer infrared wavelengths, reveals new details that ground-based telescopes would not be able to detect because of the intrinsic infrared glow of Earth’s atmosphere. It is young as planets go - about 15 to 20 million years old, compared to our 4.5-billion-year-old Earth.Īstronomers discovered the planet in 2017 using the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and took images of it using short infrared wavelengths of light. The exoplanet in Webb’s image, called HIP 65426 b, is about six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter, and these observations could help narrow that down even further. Webb is an international mission led by NASA in collaboration with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). “This is a transformative moment, not only for Webb but also for astronomy generally,” said Sasha Hinkley, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, who led these observations with a large international collaboration. ( Unlabeled version.) Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. The bar shapes in the NIRCam images are artifacts of the telescope’s optics, not objects in the scene. The small white star in each image marks the location of the host star HIP 65426, which has been subtracted using the coronagraphs and image processing. A set of masks within each instrument, called a coronagraph, blocks out the host star’s light so that the planet can be seen. These images look different because of the ways the different Webb instruments capture light. This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope: purple shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 3.00 micrometers, blue shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 11.4 micrometers, and red shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 15.5 micrometers. The image, as seen through four different light filters, shows how Webb’s powerful infrared gaze can easily capture worlds beyond our solar system, pointing the way to future observations that will reveal more information than ever before about exoplanets. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable. Editor’s Note: This post highlights images from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.įor the first time, astronomers have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system.
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