Latest news with #111lightyears
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
James Webb telescope captures its first direct image of a glowing exoplanet the size of Saturn
It's provided us with stunning pictures of distant galaxies, nebulae and dying stars. But now, for the first time ever, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured an unprecedented image of an exoplanet outside our solar system. The planet, dubbed TWA 7b, was found orbiting a young red dwarf star about 111 light-years from Earth. Scientists estimate the celestial body is roughly the same mass as that of Saturn, or 100 times larger than Earth. That makes TWA 7b the smallest exoplanet ever directly observed - 10 times less massive than previous discoveries. Although the JWST has discovered hundreds of exoplanets, these have all been found indirectly by carefully watching the host star. However, by simulating the effects of an eclipse, scientists were able to filter out the excess starlight and spot the exoplanet's faint infrared glow. Lead researcher Dr Anne-Marie Lagrange, an astrophysicist at the Paris Observatory, told MailOnline: 'Detecting exoplanets is not easy in general. Imaging them is even more challenging. This is why the lightest planets imaged before TWA 7b [were] massive giants, a few times Jupiter's mass.' This image combines ground-based data from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and data from the JWST. The star has been hidden and marked with a white star symbol. The blue region shows the debris field spotted by the VLT and the orange circle is the exoplanet as seen by the JWST Exoplanets, any planet outside the solar system, are small and appear to be extremely close to their star when seen from Earth. Since they don't give off much light of their own, this makes them extremely hard to see against the bright background. Scientists normally find exoplanets using the 'transit method', which involves watching the planet pass in front of its parent star and measuring how much the light dims. However, 20 years ago Dr Lagrange and her colleagues developed a technique using a device called a 'coronagraph' to block out the light of distant stars. This allowed her to see the rings of material floating around distant stars for the very first time. Dr Lagrange and her colleagues decided to focus on stars that they could see from the 'top-down', looking down on the star's pole to give a bird's eye view of the planetary system. They also chose to look for young stars since these have rings of material which are still glowing with heat, making them easier to spot. Astronomers already knew that the 6.4-million-year-old TWA 7 star had three distinct rings of debris which could be seen from the top down - making it an ideal target for the JWST. Using the coronagraph mounted on the space telescope the researchers blocked out the light from the star and then removed any residual glow using image processing. This revealed a faint source of infrared radiation within TWA 7's debris field, about 50 times farther from the star than Earth is to the Sun. This source was located in a 'hole' within one particularly narrow dust ring. That told Dr Lagrange that she was likely looking at a young planet which was just starting to affect debris in its orbital path. Although there is a very slim possibility that this signal could be a galaxy far in the background, initial analysis suggests it is likely to be a young, cold planet with a temperature of 47°C (120°F). Dr Lagrange says: 'Clearly it formed in a disk a few million years ago. It has gravitational interactions with the debris disk.' Dr Lagrange also says that a thin ring of material forming around the planet's orbit, known as a Trojan Ring, was predicted by models but had never been observed before. This discovery is exciting because it is the first time an exoplanet the size of the planets in our solar system has been directly observed. This is the smallest exoplanet ever directly observed but the JWST (pictured) has the potential to image planets just 10 per cent of Jupiter's mass Exoplanets Dr Lagrange has directly observed using Earth-based telescopes are giants, many times the mass of Jupiter. But the JWST has the potential to spot exoplanets just a tenth of Jupiter's mass. Scientists could use these observations to help uncover the mysteries of how our own solar system formed. However, Dr Lagrange says they cannot yet directly observe 'Earth-like planets in the habitable zone'. That means the hunt for life beyond our solar system will still need to wait for even more powerful telescopes such as NASA's proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory. Scientists study the atmosphere of distant exoplanets using enormous space satellites like Hubble Distant stars and their orbiting planets often have conditions unlike anything we see in our atmosphere. To understand these new world's, and what they are made of, scientists need to be able to detect what their atmospheres consist of. They often do this by using a telescope similar to Nasa's Hubble Telescope. These enormous satellites scan the sky and lock on to exoplanets that Nasa think may be of interest. Here, the sensors on board perform different forms of analysis. One of the most important and useful is called absorption spectroscopy. This form of analysis measures the light that is coming out of a planet's atmosphere. Every gas absorbs a slightly different wavelength of light, and when this happens a black line appears on a complete spectrum. These lines correspond to a very specific molecule, which indicates it's presence on the planet. They are often called Fraunhofer lines after the German astronomer and physicist that first discovered them in 1814. By combining all the different wavelengths of lights, scientists can determine all the chemicals that make up the atmosphere of a planet. The key is that what is missing, provides the clues to find out what is present. It is vitally important that this is done by space telescopes, as the atmosphere of Earth would then interfere. Absorption from chemicals in our atmosphere would skew the sample, which is why it is important to study the light before it has had chance to reach Earth. This is often used to look for helium, sodium and even oxygen in alien atmospheres.
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its 1st exoplanet and snapped its picture (image)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. After three years of helping astronomers investigate known planets beyond the solar system, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered its first new planet. The extrasolar planet, or "exoplanet," which has been designated TWA 7b, also happens to have the lowest mass of any planet that has been directly imaged beyond the solar system. With an estimated mass of around 100 times that of Earth or 0.3 times the mass of Jupiter, TWA 7b is ten times lighter than any exoplanet previously directly imaged. TWA 7b was discovered in the debris rings that surround the low-mass star CE Antilae, also known as TWA 7, located around 111 light-years from Earth. CE Antilae is a very young star, estimated to be around just a few million years old. If that seems ancient, consider the sun, a "middle-aged" star, is around 4.6 billion years old. CE Antilae, discovered in 1999, has long been a system of great interest to astronomers because it is seen "pole-on" from Earth. That means the disk of debris or "protoplanetary disk" that surrounds CE Antliae is seen 'from above' (or 'below'), revealing its full extent. This has allowed astronomers to see structures in this disk that appear to have been created by the gravity of then-unseen planets and planetesimals, the "seeds" which gather mass to grow into full planets. The disk of CE Antilae is divided into three distinct rings, one of which is narrow and bounded by two empty "lanes" mostly devoid of matter. When imaging this ring, the JWST spotted an infrared-emitting source, which the team of astronomers determined is most likely a young exoplanet. They then used simulations that confirmed the formation of a thin ring and a "hole" exactly where this planet is positioned, corresponding to JWST observations. Related Stories: —The deadly atmosphere on Venus could help us find habitable worlds. Here's how. —Could nearby stars have habitable exoplanets? NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory hopes to find out —What really makes a planet habitable? Our assumptions may be wrong The JWST is the ideal instrument to detect young low-mass planets like TWA 7b, which emit infrared radiation, the type of light the $10 billion space telescope is most sensitive to. Directly imaging these planets is difficult because they are drowned out by light from their parent stars. The JWST is equipped with a coronagraph that blocks out the light from central stars, allowing the faint infrared emissions of orbiting exoplanets to be detected by its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). That means, though this is the lowest mass planet ever imaged and the first exoplanet discovered by the JWST, it's a safe bet that the powerful space telescope will discover many more planets as it images even lighter worlds. The team's research was published in the journal Nature.
Forbes
a day ago
- Science
- Forbes
Webb Telescope Images New Planet — What It Means For Earth 2.0 Search
In a landmark achievement, the James Webb Space Telescope has directly imaged its first new exoplanet. About the same mass as Saturn, it was found in a star system about 111 light-years distant. It's the lightest planet even directly imaged and could make it easier for astronomers to find Earth-like planets in other star systems. Image of the disk around the star TWA 7 recorded using ESO's Very Large Telescope's SPHERE ... More instrument, with image captured with JWST's MIRI instrument overlayed. A.-M. Lagrange and al. - Evidence for a sub-jovian planet in the young TWA7 disk, 2025 Dubbed TWA 7b, the exoplanet — defined as a planet that orbits a star other than the sun — was found in a disk of debris (which scientists call a protoplanetary disk) around a star called TWA 7. The planet is 10 times lighter than those previously captured in images. TWA 7 is a small red dwarf star just 111 light-years from the solar system in the Southern Hemisphere constellation Antlia. It has long been known to have three rings around it that could have planets forming within them. It's the first confirmed detection of a planet embedded in a debris disk using the Webb Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument, which provides far greater sensitivity than previous instruments. It comes just a week after Webb's Near-Infrared Camera was used to directly image another cold exoplanet called 14 Herculis c. About seven times the mass of Jupiter, it was found 60 light-years from the solar system in the constellation Hercules. TWA 7b was found using MIRI's coronagraph instrument, which places a disk over a star to block its light, creating an artificial eclipse that enables planets to show up around it. Exoplanets are typically found using the transit method, whereby astronomers record slight dips in the brightness of a distant star caused by a planet transiting across it. It's then possible to calculate the size of the planet, how far away it is from the star and study the starlight shining through the planet's atmosphere. If that method relies purely on a lucky line of sight, so does the discovery of TWA 7b. The TWA 7 star system is seen pole-on, an ideal vantage point that had allowed earlier observations to reveal its three-ring debris disk. Direct imaging, especially of low-mass planets, is notoriously difficult due to the overwhelming brightness of host stars. A paper about the discovery was published in Nature today by an international team of scientists. In this 2020 image from the Gemini South telescope in Chile, the circumstellar disk around star TWA ... More 7 can be seen. International Gemini Observatory At about a third of the mass of Jupiter — about the same as Saturn's, or about 100 times the mass of Earth — TWA 7b is the lowest-mass exoplanet ever directly imaged. It demonstrates JWST's power to detect much smaller and colder planets than previously possible using the MIRI instrument's coronagraph to directly image stars. Researchers believe that with continued use of advanced coronagraphs, even Earth-sized planets could one day be imaged directly. Efforts are already underway to identify the next most promising targets. Creating 'fake' Eclipses In Space The European Space Agency last week published the first images of an artificial total solar eclipse created in Earth orbit by its Proba-3 mission. It features two satellites that fly in formation 492 feet (150 meters) apart with millimeter precision, with one using a 1.4-meter-diameter disk that occults the sun, casting a shadow on another with a telescope and a coronagraph. Creating a total solar eclipse for six hours in every 19.6-hour orbit should allow scientists to study the sun's corona — its hotter outer atmosphere — which is only visible during a total solar eclipse. Forbes History Made As Webb Telescope Finds 44 Stars Near Big Bang — Here's How It Did It By Jamie Carter Forbes Webb Telescope Photographs 'Strange' Cold Planet Around Nearby Star By Jamie Carter Forbes In Photos: First Ever 'Fake' Total Solar Eclipse Created In Space By Jamie Carter
