Astronomers captured the first direct image of an exoplanet with the James Webb Space Telescope.
The exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system, is a gas giant about six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter. The planet, called HIP 65426 b, is about 15 to 20 million years old — just a baby planet when compared to cEarth, which is 4.5 billion years old.
It is located about 385 light-years from Earth.
The planet can be seen in four different bands of infrared light, captured by Webb’s different instruments. Webb sees the universe in infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye — and makes it the perfect space observatory for revealing details about distant worlds.
“This is a transformative time, not just for Webb, but for astronomy in general,” Sasha Hinkley, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Exeter in the UK, said in a statement.
Hinkley led the observations within an international collaboration.
The exoplanet was first discovered in 2017 using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and its SPHERE instrument, located in Chile. The instrument then captured images of the planet at short infrared wavelengths, but Webb’s ability to see longer infrared wavelengths could shed light on new details.
Scientists are analyzing Webb’s HIP 65426 b data and an upcoming study will be submitted to journals for peer review.
The exoplanet is about a hundred times farther from its host star than Earth is from the Sun, which allowed Webb and his instruments to separate the planet from its star.
Some of Webb’s instruments are armed with coronagraphs, or masks that can block starlight, allowing the telescope to capture direct images of exoplanets.
Stars are much brighter than planets, and in this case HIP 65426 b is more than 10,000 times dimmer than its host star in near-infrared light.
“Getting this image was like digging up a space treasure,” said Aarynn Carter, lead image analysis and postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in a statement. “At first all I could see was the starlight, but with careful image processing I was able to remove that light and discover the planet.”
While the Hubble Space Telescope was the first to capture direct images of exoplanets, Webb’s infrared exploration of exoplanets is just beginning. The telescope has already shared the first spectrum of an exoplanet by detecting a signature of water in its atmosphere and has found the first clear evidence of carbon dioxide in an exoplanet’s atmosphere.
And the space observatory only started making scientific observations this summer.
“I think the most exciting thing is that we’re just getting started,” Carter said. “There are many more exoplanet images to come that will shape our overall understanding of their physics, chemistry and formation. We may even discover previously unknown planets as well.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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