In a recent study published in the journal Nature, researchers announced a groundbreaking discovery made by the James Webb Space Telescope. Since its launch in 2021, the telescope has not only provided valuable insights into the early universe but has also gathered significant data on exoplanets, planets located beyond our solar system. For the first time ever, Webb has identified an exoplanet that was previously unknown.
This newly discovered exoplanet is a young gas giant planet akin in size to Saturn, the second-largest planet in our solar system. It orbits a star smaller than our sun, located approximately 110 light-years away in the constellation Antlia. To put this distance in perspective, a light-year is equivalent to the distance light travels in a year, which is about 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).
While most of the over 5,900 exoplanets discovered since the 1990s were detected using indirect methods like the transit method, which observes the dimming of a star’s light when a planet passes in front of it, less than 2% of these planets have been directly imaged – a feat achieved by Webb with this new discovery. Despite being sizable compared to planets in our solar system, this newly found exoplanet is actually the least massive ever detected through direct imaging, being 10 times less massive than the previous record holder. This speaks to the remarkable sensitivity of Webb’s instruments.
The discovery of this planet was made possible using a coronagraph, a French-made device installed on Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument. Astronomer Anne-Marie Lagrange, the lead author of the study, emphasized the significance of this find in expanding our understanding of exoplanetary systems and their formation and evolution.
The exoplanet, orbiting its host star TWA 7 at a distance approximately 52 times greater than Earth’s distance from the sun, offers a unique perspective into planetary systems. Given that the exoplanet is observed from above its system, researchers were able to discern the structure of its protoplanetary disk consisting of concentric rings of rocky and dusty material.
As the star and the planet are relatively young at around 6 million years old, compared to our sun and solar system’s age of about 4.5 billion years, further observations using the James Webb Space Telescope may reveal the composition of the planet’s atmosphere and provide additional insights into this intriguing exoplanetary system.
The young planet is continuing to grow in size as it gathers more material around it. Although this planet is the smallest one ever directly observed, it is much larger than rocky planets such as Earth, which are considered potential candidates in the hunt for extraterrestrial life. Despite its advanced ability to observe the universe in near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths, the Webb telescope is still unable to capture images of Earth-sized exoplanets directly. Lagrange expressed hope for future projects aimed at directly imaging Earth-like planets and searching for signs of life beyond our solar system. (Reporting by Will Dunham, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
