Latest news with #TWA7b
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Science
- Yahoo
James Webb Space Telescope discovers its first exoplanet as stunning image is revealed
This discovery is out of this world. For the first time since its operations began in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a direct image, published by the journal Nature, of a new exoplanet — a planet that orbits outside the solar system. This discovery marks a major breakthrough in astronomy and a 'new step' in the ongoing search for planets that exist beyond our solar system. This discovery was made possible by a team from France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), working at the Observatoire de Paris-PSL in partnership with Université Grenoble Alpes. From Earth, these planets appear directly next to bright stars, so their faint signals often get lost in the glare. To combat this, the CNRS team designed a chronograph — a special telegraphic tool for the JWST that blocks out a star's light, much like how the Moon blocks out the Sun during a solar eclipse. Named TWA 7b, the newly discovered planet is surrounded by a swirling disk of rocky debris and dust — remnants from the early stages of planet formation. It orbits a young star, TWA 7, which has three distinct rings, one of which is especially narrow, and is surrounded by two empty areas. The JWST revealed a source within the heart of this narrow ring. This exoplanet is 10 times smaller — roughly the size of Saturn — than any exoplanet previously observed using this method. Which has to be tiny considering the JWST gave way to six distant 'rogue' worlds, discovered by a team at Johns Hopkins University last summer. At the time, researchers believed that these worlds were potentially brown dwarfs — the astronomical term for failed stars. 'If you have an object that looks like a young Jupiter, is it possible that it could have become a star under the right conditions?' said lead study author Adam Langeveld. Other relevant discoveries made by the JWST around the same time provided data to researchers from the University of Michigan and Montreal to assume that there are potential oceans and air sources on the exoplanet dubbed LHS 1140 b, which is located within the constellation Cetus in the night sky. Most exoplanets we know about have been detected using indirect methods like measuring a star's wobble or dimming as a planet crosses in front of it — the method scientists artificially recreated to discover TWA 7 b. In the bigger picture, learning how planets like TWA 7 b form and shape their surroundings brings us one step closer to understanding the origins of planetary systems, including our own.
Yahoo
an hour 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.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Science
- Yahoo
James Webb telescope discovers its first planet — a Saturn-size 'shepherd' still glowing red hot from its formation
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured its first direct image of a planet in a remote solar system, and it's lighter than any seen before. The planet, named TWA 7b, is a gas giant with a size comparable to Saturn's. Orbiting a star just over 6 million years old, the planet is still glowing hot from its formation. The planet is the first observation of hypothesized yet previously unseen "shepherd" planets, which clear gaps of material found inside planetary rings. The researchers behind the discovery published their findings June 25 in the journal Nature. "It tells us that indeed, planets can form gaps in disks (which was theorised, but not observed) and trojan-like structures can indeed be present in exoplanetary systems," lead study author Anne-Marie Lagrange, an astronomer and research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, told Live Science. "It is the first time that such a light planet is imaged, ten times lighter than the lightest [previously known] planet," she said. "This is thanks to the extreme sensitivity of JWST in the thermal domain." Astronomers study exoplanets because they help them to understand how planetary systems, such as our own, form. Yet while thousands have been seen indirectly — through the dimming of host stars as they pass in front of them or the wobble the planets' gravitational tugs give them — the light bouncing off exoplanets is usually drowned out by the light from the star, making them effectively invisible. Related: 'Eyeball' planet spied by James Webb telescope might be habitable To peer through this glare, JWST uses a coronagraph attached to its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI); this device blocks out a star's light and makes it easier to spot objects orbiting around it. To further boost the effectiveness of this search, astronomers select young stars whose planetary disks are pole-on to the telescope, enabling them to 'look down' over star systems whose satellites are still glowing hot from their formation. RELATED STORIES —James Webb telescope spots wind blowing faster than a bullet on '2-faced planet' with eternal night —James Webb telescope discovers oldest black hole in the universe —James Webb telescope finds origins of the biggest explosion since the Big Bang — revealing a new cosmological mystery The system containing TWA 7b, called TWA 7, is 110 light-years from Earth and contains three concentric rings of rocky debris and dust, one of which was narrow and flanked by two empty bands of space. Within the heart of this narrow ring, the scientists found a hole containing a source of infrared-radiation. Follow-up simulations suggested that this radiation source is a planet roughly 30% the size of Jupiter that's orbiting its star at 52 times the distance that Earth orbits the sun. Its presence in a gap inside the planetary ring is also intriguing; while observations of holes in the discs surrounding stars have been made before in other systems, this is the first clear detection of the shepherd planets believed to create them. To further investigate the new system and others like it, Lagrange said that she and her colleagues will obtain "more data to study TWA7 b atmosphere, to search for other light, cold young planets in imaging" and "to search for cold old massive planets."
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Asbury Park beach lifeguard impaled by a six-foot-long umbrella in ‘freak' wind accident
A female lifeguard was impaled by a beach umbrella at the Jersey Shore this week, which became a dangerous projectile due to wind gusts. (Image for representation) A female lifeguard was hospitalized after being impaled by a beach umbrella at Asbury Park. (Unsplash) The young woman was struck by a roughly six-foot-long umbrella that pierced through her body, entering beneath her left shoulder and exiting through her back around 9:30 AM on Wednesday at Asbury Park's 3rd Avenue Beach. 'The umbrella went underneath her left shoulder and out the back,' said Asbury Park Fire Chief Kevin Keddy in a statement to The New York Post. 'It was protruding by about a foot,' he added. ALSO READ| Morning Midas cargo ship: EVs behind fire sinking of 3000 vehicles off Alaska - Here's latest Probe how beach umbrella became almost fatal Emergency responders, including fellow lifeguards and EMS personnel, rushed to the scene after a call came in. 'We had to saw off the stake from the front and the back to make it more manageable. We bandaged her up and transported her to the hospital,' Keddy said. The victim, conscious throughout the ordeal, was taken to the Jersey Shore University Medical Centre in Neptune. 'When we dropped her off, she was conscious and alert and in good spirits — all things considered,' Keddy added. There is still no accurate way of knowing how the accident happened. One reason that has been put forward is that the woman might have been attempting to get or pick up an umbrella that had been snagged by a strong wind blast when she fell on the stake. ALSO READ| James Webb Space Telescope spots its 1st alien planet: 'TWA 7b' Umbrellas turning into airborne hazards are not new U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported that about 3, 000 individuals suffer injuries every year, due to beach umbrellas. Notably, a 63-year-old woman named Tammy Perreault was impaled by a beach umbrella in 2022 in South Carolina. In the same way, 55-year-old Lottie Michelle Belk also died in Virginia Beach in 2016 when a windblown umbrella hit her. ALSO READ| Judge warns Meta for being a 'serious copyright infringer' after dismissing AI training lawsuit CPSC's 2024 report also warns that flying beach umbrellas have become 'too common' in the States and urges beachgoers to take precautions.
Engadget
10 hours ago
- Science
- Engadget
NASA'S James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first direct image of an exoplanet
NASA'S James Webb Space Telescope has captured direct images of a planet outside of our solar system, which is the first time it has accomplished such a feat. This is a very big deal because exoplanets don't put out much light, so researchers typically discover new planets through indirect methods like keeping track of shadows as they pass across a host star. Webb, however, didn't have to do all that. It has directly captured images of a planet called TWA 7 b . Scientists believe the planet is around the mass of Saturn and is located 100 light years away from Earth. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. — NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) June 25, 2025 The planet is much further away from its star than Earth, so it has a wider orbital period that lasts several hundred years. The planetary system is thought to be around 6 million years old, so we are really getting a snapshot into the early stages of its development. Our sun is considered to be middle-aged and is around 4.6 billion years old. TWA 7 b is ten times smaller than any previous exoplanet to be directly observed with a telescope, according to The Guardian . Typically, planets of this size can't be seen by telescopes, as the light from the host star masks direct observation. The research team, led by Dr. Anne-Marie Lagrange, got around this by making a telescopic attachment that mimicked the results of a solar eclipse. This reduced much of the light emanating from the star to make it easier to observe surrounding objects. The process allowed the team to spot the planet, which appears as a bright source of light with a narrow ring of debris. Lagrange and her team do note that there's still a "very small chance" the images show a background galaxy, but the evidence "strongly points" to the source being a previously undiscovered planet. The first exoplanet was first discovered in 1992. Since that time, nearly 6,000 more have been spotted. Again, the vast majority of these have not been captured with direct imaging. This is just the latest stunning discovery by our good friend James Webb. It recently captured a cosmic phenomenon called an "Einstein Ring," which is when light from one galaxy is bent around the mass of another. Last year, the telescope found the most distant galaxy ever observed . If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
