James Webb Space Telescope Images: For the first time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken a direct picture of a planet (TWA 7 b) outside our solar system. This planet is located 110 million light years away from our Earth.

Highlights
The James Webb Telescope captured the first image of an exoplanet.
The planet TWA 7 b is about the size of Saturn and is 110 million light-years away.
This discovery represents the earliest stages of planetary evolution.

New Delhi: 110 million light years away from Earth, a young star and a planet revolving around it… This is not science fiction, but a new and historic discovery of the James Webb Space Telescope. For the first time, a direct picture of an exoplanet (planet outside the solar system) has been captured. This planet, TWA 7 b, has been seen passing through a glowing dense disk of dust and rocks. According to scientists, this planet is equal to Saturn and is the lightest planet seen directly till now.

Planet system only 6 million years old

Dr. Anne-Marie Lagrange is an astrophysicist at the Paris Observatory and lead author of this study. He said that ‘we are looking at a system that is only 6 million years old, that is, the early stage of planetary evolution.’

This discovery is even more exciting because most of the nearly 6,000 exoplanets discovered so far were discovered by indirect methods, such as by measuring the shadows cast by their stars as they pass in front of the stars. It is extremely difficult to see an exoplanet directly, as it is very faint compared to its star and is very close to the star.

How did they make the impossible possible?

Lagrange and his team developed a special telescopic attachment that creates a situation similar to a solar eclipse. That is, it hides the light of the star and highlights the planet near it. Using this technique, they observed the star TWA 7 from its pole, that is, from such an angle that the entire disc is clearly visible from above.

The pictures showed three circular rings around this star, which were earlier thought to be just a fantasy. But this time scientists saw a real planet, which appeared as a bright point passing through these rings.

TWA 7 b is a gas giant, just like Saturn. It is 50 times farther from its star than the distance between Earth and the Sun and takes hundreds of years to complete one orbit. This discovery is not limited to this planet, but it is an indication that scientists may now be able to see more planets in our galaxy directly. This will not only identify new planets, but will also help in understanding the process of formation of planets, their structure and the possibility of life.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has achieved a significant milestone by directly imaging an exoplanet for the first time. This newly discovered world, named TWA 7 b, is roughly the size of Saturn and orbits a young star called TWA 7, located about 110 light-years away.
This is a groundbreaking achievement because directly imaging exoplanets is incredibly challenging. The glare from a host star typically overwhelms the faint light from its orbiting planets. However, JWST’s powerful instruments, particularly its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) equipped with a coronagraph (a device that blocks out starlight), allowed astronomers to “see” TWA 7 b.
TWA 7 b is also notable for being the least massive exoplanet ever directly imaged, about ten times lighter than previous direct imaging detections. Its discovery provides valuable insights into the early stages of planetary system formation, as it’s still glowing hot from its formation and is found within the debris disk of its young star, TWA 7, which is only about 6.4 million years old.
This direct observation of TWA 7 b demonstrates JWST’s incredible capabilities in exoplanet research and opens up new avenues for studying distant worlds.

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