Why this is a big deal in our 1-minute read:
- The James Webb Space Telescope has likely captured its very first direct image of a planet orbiting another star - a major milestone for the mission.
- The planet candidate, called TWA 7 b, is about the mass of Saturn and orbits a star just 6.4 million years old - offering a rare glimpse into the early days of planetary systems.
- Using a special instrument (a coronagraph) to block the star’s glare, Webb was able to spot the faint glow of the exoplanet in the dusty disk around the star TWA 7.
- The planet’s gravity appears to be shaping the rings of dust around its star, making this the first time a directly imaged exoplanet has been linked to sculpting its home system.
- This breakthrough opens the door to finding and studying lighter, more distant exoplanets, helping scientists understand how planets and solar systems like ours are born.
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, lead researcher
Discover how Webb’s sharp vision is changing the hunt for new worlds - read the full story about how Webb may have found its first exoplanet. Saturn-mass world seen sculpting the region around nearby star
