JWST Unveils First Exoplanet Portrait Since 2021 Launch
A Milestone Achievement
The James Webb Space Telescope has turned its powerful gaze toward another star and, for the first time since its 2021 launch, delivered a direct image of a distant world far beyond the Sun’s family.
Introducing TWA 7b
- Catalogue name: TWA 7b
- Anchor star: the youthful, nearby dwarf TWA 7
- Orbital distance: roughly 50 times Earth–Sun separation
- Estimated mass: comparable to that of Saturn
How the Telescope Pulled It Off
High-contrast coronagraphy
At the heart of the detection is Webb’s coronagraphic mode. This specialized hardware placed an opaque mask over TWA 7’s blinding light, allowing the telescope to isolate the feeble glow of TWA 7b. The approach is so sensitive that it can differentiate a planet millions of times dimmer than its star.
Why Such Worlds Usually Hide
Gas-giant planets the size of TWA 7b are normally lost in their star’s glare. Traditional techniques, which rely on the planet dimming the star’s light or tugging it gravitationally, are blind when these bodies orbit so widely. High-contrast imaging clears that hurdle by directly measuring heat signatures and light reflected off the planet itself.
Forward View
With this benchmark achieved, JWST scientists are now calibrating deeper observations of planet-forming disks and atmospheres across the infrared spectrum, cementing the observatory’s role as humanity’s premier planet-hunting eye in the sky.
Webb Telescope Nets a Saturn-Twin Circling Newborn Sun TWA 7
A Surprising Point of Light in the Debris Disk
Lurking within the dusty fringe surrounding the toddler star TWA 7, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has pinned down a tight, reddish source whose brightness, location, and motion scream planetary. While astronomers concede an outside possibility that the speck could be a misaligned background galaxy, every test run so far returns the same verdict: a fresh Saturn-mass world nobody had noticed before.
What Makes the New Object So Convincing?
- The infrared glow sits directly inside the narrow gap predicted by disk-simulation models to be kept open by a planet.
- NIRCam and MIRI colors rule out stars or galaxies, matching expectations for a warm, dusty exoplanet atmosphere.
- Proper-motion tracking shows the source riding along with TWA 7 on the sky.
Snapshot of an Infant World
Early crude spectrophotometry suggests the newcomer tips the scales at roughly 0.3 Jupiter masses, circling its parent star at a balmy 120 °F (≈50 °C)—t-shirts-and-iced-coffee weather for a planet this large.
Quick Stats
| Attribute | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Mass | ≈95 M⊕ |
| Temperature | 120 °F (≈323 K) |
| Discovery Instrument | JWST NIRCam & MIRI |
| Host Age | 10-million-year-old star |
From Zero to Six Thousand in Just over Thirty Years
Back in 1992 only two planets circling pulsars were known—exotic fireworks no one predicted. Today’s catalog numbers almost six thousand confirmed worlds, yet not one has been certified as life-friendly. The latest addition surrounding TWA 7 is far too hot for oceans or lakes, yet it may teach researchers how giants migrate and sculpt the disks that cradle more hospitable real estate.
