James Webb space telescope directly images its first exoplanet
The most modern space telescope is also intended to advance the exploration of exoplanets. The first images now indicate how well this can work.
The images in the wavelengths of 3 micrometres, 4.44 micrometres, 11.5 micrometres and 15.5 micrometres (f.l.t.r.)
(Bild: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI))
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The James Webb space telescope has now also taken its first direct image of an exoplanet. The giant gas planet with the designation HIP 65426 b was imaged in four different wavelengths. The images illustrate once again what the new space telescope is capable of.
The instrument will reveal more about exoplanets than ever before, officials say. The images from HIP 65426 b are a "defining moment, not just for the telescope but for astronomy in general", says astronomer Sasha Hinkley, who led the observation.
A fairly young exoplanet
HIP 65426 b was discovered in 2017 and is about 355 light years away from Earth. It is about six to twelve times as massive as Jupiter, and this information is now to be made more precise with the new observations. The exoplanet is about 92 times as far away from its star as the Earth is from the Sun, a distance that is sufficient for the James Webb Space Telescope to be able to image the two celestial bodies separately.
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With an age of just 15 to 20 million years, HIP 65426 b is one of the youngest exoplanets ever. Earth-like life cannot exist on the giant gas planet without a solid surface, NASA still writes.
Looking at the images, researchers once again write how impressed they are with the performance of the new space telescope. Although these are not the first direct images of exoplanets taken by a space telescope - Hubble was already capable of this - they make clear what is now possible. Working on it was like a treasure hunt in space, explains Aarynn Carter, who led the project. Initially, he says, all they could see was starlight, but with careful image processing, they were able to uncover the exoplanet. "I think the most exciting thing is that we've only just started," he adds. Carter and his team are now preparing a research paper for publication.
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The James Webb Space Telescope is operated by the space agencies NASA, ESA and CSA and was launched on 25 December 2021. After deploying itself in a complex procedure, it arrived at the Lagrange point L2 a month later. Here it faces away from the Sun, Earth and Moon into space, so that their thermal radiation does not interfere with the infrared telescope. A huge protective screen blocks them.
Since it began scientific work at the beginning of July, the quality of the data has fascinated not only the research community. The images from HIP 65426 b are now part of the first observations to be published directly. The aim is for the scientific community to learn how to use the new observatory and its instruments as quickly as possible.
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