Latest news with #TWA7
Yomiuri Shimbun
04-07-2025
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
TWA 7b: James Webb Space Telescope Discovers Its 1st Exoplanet
PARIS (AFP-Jiji) — The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first exoplanet, astronomers said on June 25, capturing rare direct images of the relatively small world in the Earth's galactic backyard. The telescope, which can see farther into the universe than anything before it, has turbocharged the search for planets beyond the Solar System since coming online in 2022. Until now, however, its deep gaze has mostly been used to probe already known exoplanets — to find out key information such as the atmospheric composition — rather than tracking down new worlds. The discovery of exoplanet TWA 7b, revealed in a study in the journal Nature, 'represents a first for the telescope,' France's CNRS research center said in a statement. The large majority of the nearly 6,000 exoplanets found so far have been identified from the light they blot out when they pass in front of their star, rather than from direct images of the planet. Webb 'has spent an enormous amount of time observing planets that have never been directly imaged,' lead study author Anne-Marie Lagrange of the Paris Observatory told AFP. 'Blinded by light' Capturing direct images of faraway planets is difficult because they are 'very faint' due to a lack of heat, Lagrange said. Even worse, she added, 'we're blinded by the light of the star they orbit.' But Webb has a way to get around the problem. An attachment to Webb's MIRI instrument called a coronagraph masks the star, creating an effect similar to a solar eclipse. The telescope's infrared vision can then peer through and spot the planet. Astronomers pointed Webb at the star TWA 7, which is around a hundred light years from Earth — relatively nearby in the universe. The star, which was first spotted by the Hubble space telescope in 1999, was thought to be a promising target for two reasons. It is just 6.4 million years old — a baby compared to the Sun's 4.5 billion years — and still surrounded by a massive disc of gas and dust where planets are thought to form. And from the direction of Earth, the disc is seen from above, giving a good view of its rings. The three rings around the star, which stretch more than 100 times the distance separating the Sun and Earth, had previously been spotted by the Very Large Telescope in Chile. But inside an otherwise empty section of the second ring, the Webb telescope detected something particularly bright. Astronomers ruled out that the light was coming from an object at the edge of the Solar System, or from a distant galaxy behind the star. That could mean only that the light source was a relatively small and cold planet, with a mass at least 10 times lighter than any other exoplanet directly imaged so far, according to the study. Hunt for smaller worlds The researchers estimated that the planet's mass was similar to that of Saturn, a gas giant that weighs only a third of Jupiter, the biggest planet in the Solar System. Webb has increased the ability to detect exoplanets via direct images by a factor of 10, Lagrange said. That is important because smaller, rocky planets similar to Earth or Mars are the ultimate target in the search for habitable worlds outside of the Solar System. Lagrange said she would be delighted to discover 'Earth-like planets' one day. But she said astronomers needed to study all kinds of planets — and to understand how planetary systems form — to know whether the life-hosting Solar System is unique. In the future, astronomers expect the Webb telescope will be able to spot planets even smaller than TWA 7b. But directly capturing images of faraway worlds similar to Earth will require even more telescopic power, such as from the Extremely Large Telescope that is scheduled to come online in Chile in 2028.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA detects new planet with temperatures that suggest habitable conditions
The James Webb telescope has made another stunning discovery -- this time of a massive planet that could potentially sustain life, according to multiple space agencies. Astronomers have captured "compelling evidence" of a planet with a mass about 100 times the size of Earth orbiting a young, red dwarf star 34 light-years away called TWA 7 or CE Antilae. MORE: Rare exoplanet discovered in outskirts of the Milky Way The planet, named TWA 7b, was detected by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever put into space, according to NASA. An initial analysis suggests the object could be a young, cold planet with a temperature near 120 degrees Fahrenheit, NASA said. Life can grow and reproduce starting at about 5 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 251 degrees Fahrenheit, scientists say. MORE: Could our solar system have 9 planets after all? Astronomers may have confirmed possible existence. An international team of astronomers noticed a faint infrared source in a disk of debris surrounding the star, a distance about 50 times the space between Earth and the Sun, NASA said. They then used the telescope's mid-infrared instrument to suppress the bright glare of the host star to reveal the faint objects nearby, a method called high-contrast imaging that allows astronomers to directly detect planets that would otherwise be lost in the "overwhelming" light. If confirmed, this would be the first time the James Webb telescope captured a direct image that led to the discovery of a planet, rather than gravitational lensing -- a technique based on Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, according to astronomers. The detection would match the expected position of a planet and explain key features of planets seen in the debris disk, according to the space agency. The source of the infrared light is located within three dust rings observed surrounding TWA 7. MORE: HExoplanet discovered in 2020 has the coldest temperatures ever measured, scientists say The debris disk surrounding TWA 7 is one of the youngest debris disks known to date, according to a paper published last week in Nature. "Our observations reveal a strong candidate for a planet shaping the structure of the TWA 7 debris disk, and its position is exactly where we expected to find a planet of this mass," Anne-Marie Lagrange, a researcher at the Observatoire de Paris-PSL and Université Grenoble Alpes in France and lead author of the paper, said in a statement. The discovery is an "exciting step forward in our understanding of planetary systems," said co-author Mathilde Malin, an assistant research associate of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in a statement. The finding highlights the Webb telescope's ability to explore previously unseen low-mass planets around nearby stars, according to NASA.
02-07-2025
- Science
NASA detects new planet with temperatures that suggest habitable conditions
The James Webb telescope has made another stunning discovery -- this time of a massive planet that could potentially sustain life, according to multiple space agencies. Astronomers have captured "compelling evidence" of a planet with a mass about 100 times the size of Earth orbiting a young, red dwarf star 34 light-years away called TWA 7 or CE Antilae. The planet, named TWA 7b, was detected by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever put into space, according to NASA. An initial analysis suggests the object could be a young, cold planet with a temperature near 120 degrees Fahrenheit, NASA said. Life can grow and reproduce starting at about 5 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 251 degrees Fahrenheit, scientists say. An international team of astronomers noticed a faint infrared source in a disk of debris surrounding the star, a distance about 50 times the space between Earth and the Sun, NASA said. They then used the telescope's mid-infrared instrument to suppress the bright glare of the host star to reveal the faint objects nearby, a method called high-contrast imaging that allows astronomers to directly detect planets that would otherwise be lost in the "overwhelming" light. If confirmed, this would be the first time the James Webb telescope captured a direct image that led to the discovery of a planet, rather than gravitational lensing -- a technique based on Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, according to astronomers. The detection would match the expected position of a planet and explain key features of planets seen in the debris disk, according to the space agency. The source of the infrared light is located within three dust rings observed surrounding TWA 7. The debris disk surrounding TWA 7 is one of the youngest debris disks known to date, according to a paper published last week in Nature. "Our observations reveal a strong candidate for a planet shaping the structure of the TWA 7 debris disk, and its position is exactly where we expected to find a planet of this mass," Anne-Marie Lagrange, a researcher at the Observatoire de Paris-PSL and Université Grenoble Alpes in France and lead author of the paper, said in a statement. The discovery is an "exciting step forward in our understanding of planetary systems," said co-author Mathilde Malin, an assistant research associate of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in a statement.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Webb telescope smashed a record with the planet it just discovered
Given that Saturn is nearly 100 times more massive than Earth, it seems like a joke to refer to an exoplanet of the same weight as "light." But that's what NASA and the European Space Agency, one of its partners on the James Webb Space Telescope, have called a world their observatory just discovered. Found 111 light-years away in space, the young planet is only about 6 million years old — a mere babe in cosmic terms. A wide ring of dust surrounds it in TWA 7, its star system in the Air Pump constellation. With the Webb telescope's powerful infrared camera, scientists spotted what was pushing around that debris: a faint object at least 10 times lighter than the previous planets discovered through direct imaging. The detection, which still must be confirmed through additional observations, represents the lightest planet ever seen with this technique outside the solar system, and it marks a major milestone in the search for exoplanets obscured by debris disks — those wide, dusty belts left behind after planets begin to form. Researchers say Webb's sharper vision and deeper sensitivity mean smaller, colder, and more distant planets are finally within reach. "This observatory enables us to capture images of planets with masses similar to those in the solar system, which represents an exciting step forward in our understanding of planetary systems, including our own," said Mathilde Malin of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in a statement. SEE ALSO: Scientists just expanded the search for rocky alien worlds with air The James Webb Space Telescope captured a suspected exoplanet's thermal glow. Credit: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez illustration This exoplanet, dubbed TWA 7b, sits about 52 times farther from its star than Earth is from the sun. That places it right in the middle of a gap in the dust — the kind of thing scientists expect when a planet sculpts the debris around it with its gravity. Telescopes of the past weren't sensitive enough to spot such a small, faint planet so close to a bright star, but Webb captured its thermal glow with its mid-infrared instrument. Scientists then checked old existing images and data to rule out other possible explanations, like a background star, galaxy, or even a distant solar system object like a dwarf planet that happened to be in the same part of the sky. Nothing else fit. The discovery team published their findings in the journal Nature. Webb usually observes exoplanets through indirect methods, such as transmission spectroscopy, a technique for studying a planet's atmosphere by analyzing how starlight filters through it. What distinguishes this observation of TWA 7b is that the telescope captured light from the planet itself. The discovery comes on the heels of Webb's direct image of two previously known larger gas giants, YSES-1b and YSES-1c, about 300 light-years from Earth. The research revealed one of the exoplanets has sand-like clouds while the other is surrounded by moon-making material. Few distant worlds meet the criteria for direct imaging because planets are often millions of times fainter than the stars they circle. And if they are orbiting close, their own light usually gets washed out. But scientists want these images because they allow scientists to get much more information about an exoplanet's composition. The James Webb Space Telescope snapped a direct image of the TWA 7 star system, which includes a suspected exoplanet labeled CC #1, with its mid-infrared instrument. To the far left is an unrelated star system. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Anne-Marie Lagrange et al. / Molecules within a planet's atmosphere absorb certain colors of light, so when astronomers study a planet's spectrum, they can look for what's missing from the rainbow to determine which gases — like water, methane, and carbon dioxide — are present in the planet's air. "TWA 7b is suited for direct spectroscopic investigations, providing the opportunity to study the interior and the atmosphere of a non-irradiated sub-Jupiter-mass, cold exoplanet, and start comparative studies with our much older and cooler solar system giants," the authors wrote. Scientists overcame the challenge of the star, sometimes known as CE Antilae, by blocking its light with a special telescope instrument called a coronagraph. This device suppressed the red dwarf star's bright glare. The technique allows astronomers to see planets that would otherwise be swamped out. After subtracting excess starlight using advanced image processing, the faint infrared source from TWA 7b emerged. Computer models showed that a Saturn-size planet with a temperature of about 120 degrees Fahrenheit would match what Webb saw. The simulations were also consistent with the way the dust ring is shaped, including the seemingly "empty" area around the candidate planet's location. Ongoing studies of the distant world will aim to better nail down its properties and confirm it is indeed a planet.
Hans India
28-06-2025
- Science
- Hans India
James Webb Telescope captures first direct image of possible exoplanet TWA 7 b
For the first time, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a direct image of what scientists believe is an exoplanet—TWA 7 b—orbiting a young star located about 111 light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra. The discovery, published in the journal Nature, marks a significant milestone for the JWST, which until now had primarily confirmed or studied exoplanets using indirect methods. Unlike typical techniques that rely on the dimming of a star's light when a planet passes in front of it, this new detection used JWST's coronagraph to block out the overwhelming glare of the star TWA 7, revealing a faint source of infrared light in its surrounding debris disk. 'This is the first time Webb has directly imaged an exoplanet, and the result is incredibly exciting,' says Anne-Marie Lagrange, lead author and astrophysicist at the French National Center for Scientific Research. 'The planet's position aligns exactly with predictions based on previous observations of gaps in the debris disk.' The object, TWA 7 b, is estimated to have a mass similar to Saturn's and a temperature around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. It resides within one of the disk's three dust rings, about 50 times farther from its star than Earth is from the Sun. The odds of it being a background galaxy are slim—only 0.34%—making it a strong planetary candidate. What makes this discovery even more remarkable is that TWA 7 b is roughly ten times lighter than any exoplanet previously imaged directly. It may also be the first planet observed actively shaping its star's surrounding debris disk—an insight that sheds light on how planetary systems like our own form and evolve. To confirm their findings, Lagrange's team ran simulations of the TWA 7 system. The models mirrored the Webb images almost exactly, reinforcing their confidence in the planetary nature of the object. 'This discovery is a testament to the power of JWST's instruments,' says co-author Mathilde Malin of the Space Telescope Science Institute. 'It opens the door to studying exoplanets that were previously out of reach, both in terms of their mass and distance from their host stars.'
