The Webb Telescope Makes A Major Breakthrough With The First Direct Image Of A Planet Outside Our Solar System

ESA/ATG Media Lab In a major breakthrough for astronomers, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken its first direct image of a planet outside our solar system. Called HIP 65426 b, the Jupiter-like planet orbits a dwarf star about 385 light-years from Earth. Imaging it could help scientists find many smaller types of exoplanets. One of the most difficult ways to find an exoplanet, the success of JWST’s first attempt at direct imaging comes just days after JWST detected carbon dioxide around another exoplanet. “The images look even better than the simulated images we produced many years ago,” said Sasha Hinkley, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Exeter and Principal Investigator for one of the 13 JWST Early Release Science Programmes. “This is a particularly exciting start to this new era of capturing photons directly from exoplanet atmospheres at entirely new wavelengths that will last for the next 20 years or so,” Hinckley said, describing the moment as a “significant milestone.” The images were published online as a preprint as part of the JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems. This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the … [+] James Webb Space Telescope: purple shows the NIRCam instrument view at 3.00 micrometers, blue shows the NIRCam instrument view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the MIRI instrument view at 11.4 micrometers, and red shows the MIRI instrument view at 15.5 micrometers. These images look different because of the ways the different Webb instruments capture light. A set of masks inside each instrument, called a coronagraph, blocks the host’s light so that the planet is visible. The small white star in each image marks the location of the central star HIP 65426, which has been removed using the coronagraphs and image processing. Bar shapes in NIRCam images are artifacts of the telescope optics, not objects in the scene. Credits: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI). NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI).

What is HIP 65426 b?

HIP 65426 b is six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter. According to NASA, it takes 630.7 Earth years to orbit its star from 92 AU—that’s twice Pluto’s distance from our Sun. It was first discovered in July 2017 by scientists using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument, a “planet detector” on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The discoveries suggested that it has a “warm, dusty atmosphere”.

How Webb took this exoplanet image

Astronomers used two of JWST’s key instruments to capture the exoplanet — its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The glow from a star on the dust around it can make it impossible to detect the weak reflected light from exoplanets around it. Create a coronagraph, a black disk placed directly in front of a star to block its light. “We chose this star as we knew it had a well-established planet that would be ripe for direct imaging and therefore would be an excellent first target for testing the JWST coronagraphs,” Hinckley said. NIRCam’s task is to detect light from the first stars and galaxies. It is equipped not only with various filters to create observations at different wavelengths, but also with a coronagraph to block light from a star. This is exactly what the researchers used to find HIP 65426 b around its host star. The MIRI instrument is a camera and spectrograph that sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers used two of JWST’s key instruments to capture the exoplanet — its near-infrared camera … [+] (NIRCam) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). A. Carter (UCSC)

Webb exceeds expectations

JWST appears to be about 10 times more accurate than predicted, according to the authors for whom accuracy was everything in directly imaging HIP 65426 b. The planet could only be detected by first observing the precise structure and intensity of the residual starlight around the coronagraph and then removing it to leave the planet behind. “This structure evolves over time, but because JWST is so stable, it doesn’t vary as much as our nominal predictions,” said Aarynn Carter, lead author and postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “The telescope is more sensitive than we expected, but it’s also very stable,” he said, adding that it was a credit to all the people behind JWST’s design, construction and commissioning.

Why this direct image of an exoplanet is so important

The images of HIP 65426 b are proof that, yes, JWST can transform astronomers’ ability to directly image planets and tease out details about their atmospheres and composition. Its main weapon is its ability to see in various wavelengths of infrared light referred to as short – something no telescope has previously been able to do. “This is the first time we’ve ever imaged a planet beyond five microns, and now that we have this capability we can cover the full spectrum of light wavelengths of these objects,” Carter said. This new wavelength will help scientists calculate the luminosity, mass, temperature and radius of exoplanets. It could also help scientists find smaller exoplanets. “We showed that JWST is sensitive to smaller exoplanet masses than we could detect before,” Carter said. “Previously we were limited to super-Jupiter detections, but now we have the ability to image Uranus- and Neptune-like objects for the right targets.” Illustration of the exoplanet (extrasolar planet) Wasp 39b. Wasp 39b is a so-called hot Saturn, with … [+] a mass about one-third that of Jupiter. It orbits its star, Wasp 39, at a distance of just 0.05 AU, about one-tenth the distance of Mercury from the Sun. About 700 light-years from Earth, the Wasp 39 system is the constellation Virgo. getty

JWST vs. ground-based telescopes

It appears that JWST can directly detect exoplanets with an order of magnitude improvement over ground-based telescopes. In addition to being able to see in the infrared, JWST’s measurements are much more precise. “Terrestrial observation in the infrared is very difficult because of the higher thermal background and telluric contamination from the Earth’s atmosphere,” Carter said. The observation of HIP 65426 b is the first in Proposal 1386, a 39-hour program to push JWST’s high-contrast imaging to the limit and generate reference-quality data. The proposal will also study two other targets – a dusty disk around a star called HD 141569A (320 light-years away in the constellation Libra) and an exoplanet orbiting a binary star called VHS 1256b (41 light-years away in the constellation of Corvus).

Carbon Dioxide Detection of JWST

Just a few weeks ago it was revealed that JWST had detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time. He discovered that the gas – a major component of Earth’s atmosphere – was discovered on July 10, 2022 in the atmosphere of WASP-39b, the first exoplanet that JWST made an official observation. WASP-39b is a hot gas giant orbiting a Sun-like star about 700 light-years from Earth. Webb is the most ambitious and complex space science telescope ever built, with a massive 6.5m primary mirror that will be able to detect the faint light of distant stars and galaxies. It is designed exclusively to detect infrared light emitted by distant stars, planets, and clouds of gas and dust. I wish you clear skies and open eyes.

title: “The Webb Telescope Makes A Major Breakthrough With The First Direct Image Of A Planet Outside Our Solar System Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-19” author: “Ronnie Will”

ESA/ATG Media Lab In a major breakthrough for astronomers, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken its first direct image of a planet outside our solar system. Called HIP 65426 b, the Jupiter-like planet orbits a dwarf star about 385 light-years from Earth. Imaging it could help scientists find many smaller types of exoplanets. One of the most difficult ways to find an exoplanet, the success of JWST’s first attempt at direct imaging comes just days after JWST detected carbon dioxide around another exoplanet. “The images look even better than the simulated images we produced many years ago,” said Sasha Hinkley, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Exeter and Principal Investigator for one of the 13 JWST Early Release Science Programmes. “This is a particularly exciting start to this new era of capturing photons directly from exoplanet atmospheres at entirely new wavelengths that will last for the next 20 years or so,” Hinckley said, describing the moment as a “significant milestone.” The images were published online as a preprint as part of the JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems. This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the … [+] James Webb Space Telescope: purple shows the NIRCam instrument view at 3.00 micrometers, blue shows the NIRCam instrument view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the MIRI instrument view at 11.4 micrometers, and red shows the MIRI instrument view at 15.5 micrometers. These images look different because of the ways the different Webb instruments capture light. A set of masks inside each instrument, called a coronagraph, blocks the host’s light so that the planet is visible. The small white star in each image marks the location of the central star HIP 65426, which has been removed using the coronagraphs and image processing. Bar shapes in NIRCam images are artifacts of the telescope optics, not objects in the scene. Credits: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI). NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI).

What is HIP 65426 b?

HIP 65426 b is six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter. According to NASA, it takes 630.7 Earth years to orbit its star from 92 AU—that’s twice Pluto’s distance from our Sun. It was first discovered in July 2017 by scientists using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument, a “planet detector” on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The discoveries suggested that it has a “warm, dusty atmosphere”.

How Webb took this exoplanet image

Astronomers used two of JWST’s key instruments to capture the exoplanet — its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The glow from a star on the dust around it can make it impossible to detect the weak reflected light from exoplanets around it. Create a coronagraph, a black disk placed directly in front of a star to block its light. “We chose this star as we knew it had a well-established planet that would be ripe for direct imaging and therefore would be an excellent first target for testing the JWST coronagraphs,” Hinckley said. NIRCam’s task is to detect light from the first stars and galaxies. It is equipped not only with various filters to create observations at different wavelengths, but also with a coronagraph to block light from a star. This is exactly what the researchers used to find HIP 65426 b around its host star. The MIRI instrument is a camera and spectrograph that sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers used two of JWST’s key instruments to capture the exoplanet — its near-infrared camera … [+] (NIRCam) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). A. Carter (UCSC)

Webb exceeds expectations

JWST appears to be about 10 times more accurate than predicted, according to the authors for whom accuracy was everything in directly imaging HIP 65426 b. The planet could only be detected by first observing the precise structure and intensity of the residual starlight around the coronagraph and then removing it to leave the planet behind. “This structure evolves over time, but because JWST is so stable, it doesn’t vary as much as our nominal predictions,” said Aarynn Carter, lead author and postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “The telescope is more sensitive than we expected, but it’s also very stable,” he said, adding that it was a credit to all the people behind JWST’s design, construction and commissioning.

Why this direct image of an exoplanet is so important

The images of HIP 65426 b are proof that, yes, JWST can transform astronomers’ ability to directly image planets and tease out details about their atmospheres and composition. Its main weapon is its ability to see in various wavelengths of infrared light referred to as short – something no telescope has previously been able to do. “This is the first time we’ve ever imaged a planet beyond five microns, and now that we have this capability we can cover the full spectrum of light wavelengths of these objects,” Carter said. This new wavelength will help scientists calculate the luminosity, mass, temperature and radius of exoplanets. It could also help scientists find smaller exoplanets. “We showed that JWST is sensitive to smaller exoplanet masses than we could detect before,” Carter said. “Previously we were limited to super-Jupiter detections, but now we have the ability to image Uranus- and Neptune-like objects for the right targets.” Illustration of the exoplanet (extrasolar planet) Wasp 39b. Wasp 39b is a so-called hot Saturn, with … [+] a mass about one-third that of Jupiter. It orbits its star, Wasp 39, at a distance of just 0.05 AU, about one-tenth the distance of Mercury from the Sun. About 700 light-years from Earth, the Wasp 39 system is the constellation Virgo. getty

JWST vs. ground-based telescopes

It appears that JWST can directly detect exoplanets with an order of magnitude improvement over ground-based telescopes. In addition to being able to see in the infrared, JWST’s measurements are much more precise. “Terrestrial observation in the infrared is very difficult because of the higher thermal background and telluric contamination from the Earth’s atmosphere,” Carter said. The observation of HIP 65426 b is the first in Proposal 1386, a 39-hour program to push JWST’s high-contrast imaging to the limit and generate reference-quality data. The proposal will also study two other targets – a dusty disk around a star called HD 141569A (320 light-years away in the constellation Libra) and an exoplanet orbiting a binary star called VHS 1256b (41 light-years away in the constellation of Corvus).

Carbon Dioxide Detection of JWST

Just a few weeks ago it was revealed that JWST had detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time. He discovered that the gas – a major component of Earth’s atmosphere – was discovered on July 10, 2022 in the atmosphere of WASP-39b, the first exoplanet that JWST made an official observation. WASP-39b is a hot gas giant orbiting a Sun-like star about 700 light-years from Earth. Webb is the most ambitious and complex space science telescope ever built, with a massive 6.5m primary mirror that will be able to detect the faint light of distant stars and galaxies. It is designed exclusively to detect infrared light emitted by distant stars, planets, and clouds of gas and dust. I wish you clear skies and open eyes.

title: “The Webb Telescope Makes A Major Breakthrough With The First Direct Image Of A Planet Outside Our Solar System Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-14” author: “Lloyd Campbell”

ESA/ATG Media Lab In a major breakthrough for astronomers, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken its first direct image of a planet outside our solar system. Called HIP 65426 b, the Jupiter-like planet orbits a dwarf star about 385 light-years from Earth. Imaging it could help scientists find many smaller types of exoplanets. One of the most difficult ways to find an exoplanet, the success of JWST’s first attempt at direct imaging comes just days after JWST detected carbon dioxide around another exoplanet. “The images look even better than the simulated images we produced many years ago,” said Sasha Hinkley, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Exeter and Principal Investigator for one of the 13 JWST Early Release Science Programmes. “This is a particularly exciting start to this new era of capturing photons directly from exoplanet atmospheres at entirely new wavelengths that will last for the next 20 years or so,” Hinckley said, describing the moment as a “significant milestone.” The images were published online as a preprint as part of the JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems. This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the … [+] James Webb Space Telescope: purple shows the NIRCam instrument view at 3.00 micrometers, blue shows the NIRCam instrument view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the MIRI instrument view at 11.4 micrometers, and red shows the MIRI instrument view at 15.5 micrometers. These images look different because of the ways the different Webb instruments capture light. A set of masks inside each instrument, called a coronagraph, blocks the host’s light so that the planet is visible. The small white star in each image marks the location of the central star HIP 65426, which has been removed using the coronagraphs and image processing. Bar shapes in NIRCam images are artifacts of the telescope optics, not objects in the scene. Credits: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI). NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI).

What is HIP 65426 b?

HIP 65426 b is six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter. According to NASA, it takes 630.7 Earth years to orbit its star from 92 AU—that’s twice Pluto’s distance from our Sun. It was first discovered in July 2017 by scientists using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument, a “planet detector” on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The discoveries suggested that it has a “warm, dusty atmosphere”.

How Webb took this exoplanet image

Astronomers used two of JWST’s key instruments to capture the exoplanet — its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The glow from a star on the dust around it can make it impossible to detect the weak reflected light from exoplanets around it. Create a coronagraph, a black disk placed directly in front of a star to block its light. “We chose this star as we knew it had a well-established planet that would be ripe for direct imaging and therefore would be an excellent first target for testing the JWST coronagraphs,” Hinckley said. NIRCam’s task is to detect light from the first stars and galaxies. It is equipped not only with various filters to create observations at different wavelengths, but also with a coronagraph to block light from a star. This is exactly what the researchers used to find HIP 65426 b around its host star. The MIRI instrument is a camera and spectrograph that sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers used two of JWST’s key instruments to capture the exoplanet — its near-infrared camera … [+] (NIRCam) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). A. Carter (UCSC)

Webb exceeds expectations

JWST appears to be about 10 times more accurate than predicted, according to the authors for whom accuracy was everything in directly imaging HIP 65426 b. The planet could only be detected by first observing the precise structure and intensity of the residual starlight around the coronagraph and then removing it to leave the planet behind. “This structure evolves over time, but because JWST is so stable, it doesn’t vary as much as our nominal predictions,” said Aarynn Carter, lead author and postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “The telescope is more sensitive than we expected, but it’s also very stable,” he said, adding that it was a credit to all the people behind JWST’s design, construction and commissioning.

Why this direct image of an exoplanet is so important

The images of HIP 65426 b are proof that, yes, JWST can transform astronomers’ ability to directly image planets and tease out details about their atmospheres and composition. Its main weapon is its ability to see in various wavelengths of infrared light referred to as short – something no telescope has previously been able to do. “This is the first time we’ve ever imaged a planet beyond five microns, and now that we have this capability we can cover the full spectrum of light wavelengths of these objects,” Carter said. This new wavelength will help scientists calculate the luminosity, mass, temperature and radius of exoplanets. It could also help scientists find smaller exoplanets. “We showed that JWST is sensitive to smaller exoplanet masses than we could detect before,” Carter said. “Previously we were limited to super-Jupiter detections, but now we have the ability to image Uranus- and Neptune-like objects for the right targets.” Illustration of the exoplanet (extrasolar planet) Wasp 39b. Wasp 39b is a so-called hot Saturn, with … [+] a mass about one-third that of Jupiter. It orbits its star, Wasp 39, at a distance of just 0.05 AU, about one-tenth the distance of Mercury from the Sun. About 700 light-years from Earth, the Wasp 39 system is the constellation Virgo. getty

JWST vs. ground-based telescopes

It appears that JWST can directly detect exoplanets with an order of magnitude improvement over ground-based telescopes. In addition to being able to see in the infrared, JWST’s measurements are much more precise. “Terrestrial observation in the infrared is very difficult because of the higher thermal background and telluric contamination from the Earth’s atmosphere,” Carter said. The observation of HIP 65426 b is the first in Proposal 1386, a 39-hour program to push JWST’s high-contrast imaging to the limit and generate reference-quality data. The proposal will also study two other targets – a dusty disk around a star called HD 141569A (320 light-years away in the constellation Libra) and an exoplanet orbiting a binary star called VHS 1256b (41 light-years away in the constellation of Corvus).

Carbon Dioxide Detection of JWST

Just a few weeks ago it was revealed that JWST had detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time. He discovered that the gas – a major component of Earth’s atmosphere – was discovered on July 10, 2022 in the atmosphere of WASP-39b, the first exoplanet that JWST made an official observation. WASP-39b is a hot gas giant orbiting a Sun-like star about 700 light-years from Earth. Webb is the most ambitious and complex space science telescope ever built, with a massive 6.5m primary mirror that will be able to detect the faint light of distant stars and galaxies. It is designed exclusively to detect infrared light emitted by distant stars, planets, and clouds of gas and dust. I wish you clear skies and open eyes.

title: “The Webb Telescope Makes A Major Breakthrough With The First Direct Image Of A Planet Outside Our Solar System Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-23” author: “Stephen Duarte”

ESA/ATG Media Lab In a major breakthrough for astronomers, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken its first direct image of a planet outside our solar system. Called HIP 65426 b, the Jupiter-like planet orbits a dwarf star about 385 light-years from Earth. Imaging it could help scientists find many smaller types of exoplanets. One of the most difficult ways to find an exoplanet, the success of JWST’s first attempt at direct imaging comes just days after JWST detected carbon dioxide around another exoplanet. “The images look even better than the simulated images we produced many years ago,” said Sasha Hinkley, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Exeter and Principal Investigator for one of the 13 JWST Early Release Science Programmes. “This is a particularly exciting start to this new era of capturing photons directly from exoplanet atmospheres at entirely new wavelengths that will last for the next 20 years or so,” Hinckley said, describing the moment as a “significant milestone.” The images were published online as a preprint as part of the JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems. This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the … [+] James Webb Space Telescope: purple shows the NIRCam instrument view at 3.00 micrometers, blue shows the NIRCam instrument view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the MIRI instrument view at 11.4 micrometers, and red shows the MIRI instrument view at 15.5 micrometers. These images look different because of the ways the different Webb instruments capture light. A set of masks inside each instrument, called a coronagraph, blocks the host’s light so that the planet is visible. The small white star in each image marks the location of the central star HIP 65426, which has been removed using the coronagraphs and image processing. Bar shapes in NIRCam images are artifacts of the telescope optics, not objects in the scene. Credits: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI). NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI).

What is HIP 65426 b?

HIP 65426 b is six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter. According to NASA, it takes 630.7 Earth years to orbit its star from 92 AU—that’s twice Pluto’s distance from our Sun. It was first discovered in July 2017 by scientists using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument, a “planet detector” on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The discoveries suggested that it has a “warm, dusty atmosphere”.

How Webb took this exoplanet image

Astronomers used two of JWST’s key instruments to capture the exoplanet — its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The glow from a star on the dust around it can make it impossible to detect the weak reflected light from exoplanets around it. Create a coronagraph, a black disk placed directly in front of a star to block its light. “We chose this star as we knew it had a well-established planet that would be ripe for direct imaging and therefore would be an excellent first target for testing the JWST coronagraphs,” Hinckley said. NIRCam’s task is to detect light from the first stars and galaxies. It is equipped not only with various filters to create observations at different wavelengths, but also with a coronagraph to block light from a star. This is exactly what the researchers used to find HIP 65426 b around its host star. The MIRI instrument is a camera and spectrograph that sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers used two of JWST’s key instruments to capture the exoplanet — its near-infrared camera … [+] (NIRCam) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). A. Carter (UCSC)

Webb exceeds expectations

JWST appears to be about 10 times more accurate than predicted, according to the authors for whom accuracy was everything in directly imaging HIP 65426 b. The planet could only be detected by first observing the precise structure and intensity of the residual starlight around the coronagraph and then removing it to leave the planet behind. “This structure evolves over time, but because JWST is so stable, it doesn’t vary as much as our nominal predictions,” said Aarynn Carter, lead author and postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “The telescope is more sensitive than we expected, but it’s also very stable,” he said, adding that it was a credit to all the people behind JWST’s design, construction and commissioning.

Why this direct image of an exoplanet is so important

The images of HIP 65426 b are proof that, yes, JWST can transform astronomers’ ability to directly image planets and tease out details about their atmospheres and composition. Its main weapon is its ability to see in various wavelengths of infrared light referred to as short – something no telescope has previously been able to do. “This is the first time we’ve ever imaged a planet beyond five microns, and now that we have this capability we can cover the full spectrum of light wavelengths of these objects,” Carter said. This new wavelength will help scientists calculate the luminosity, mass, temperature and radius of exoplanets. It could also help scientists find smaller exoplanets. “We showed that JWST is sensitive to smaller exoplanet masses than we could detect before,” Carter said. “Previously we were limited to super-Jupiter detections, but now we have the ability to image Uranus- and Neptune-like objects for the right targets.” Illustration of the exoplanet (extrasolar planet) Wasp 39b. Wasp 39b is a so-called hot Saturn, with … [+] a mass about one-third that of Jupiter. It orbits its star, Wasp 39, at a distance of just 0.05 AU, about one-tenth the distance of Mercury from the Sun. About 700 light-years from Earth, the Wasp 39 system is the constellation Virgo. getty

JWST vs. ground-based telescopes

It appears that JWST can directly detect exoplanets with an order of magnitude improvement over ground-based telescopes. In addition to being able to see in the infrared, JWST’s measurements are much more precise. “Terrestrial observation in the infrared is very difficult because of the higher thermal background and telluric contamination from the Earth’s atmosphere,” Carter said. The observation of HIP 65426 b is the first in Proposal 1386, a 39-hour program to push JWST’s high-contrast imaging to the limit and generate reference-quality data. The proposal will also study two other targets – a dusty disk around a star called HD 141569A (320 light-years away in the constellation Libra) and an exoplanet orbiting a binary star called VHS 1256b (41 light-years away in the constellation of Corvus).

Carbon Dioxide Detection of JWST

Just a few weeks ago it was revealed that JWST had detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time. He discovered that the gas – a major component of Earth’s atmosphere – was discovered on July 10, 2022 in the atmosphere of WASP-39b, the first exoplanet that JWST made an official observation. WASP-39b is a hot gas giant orbiting a Sun-like star about 700 light-years from Earth. Webb is the most ambitious and complex space science telescope ever built, with a massive 6.5m primary mirror that will be able to detect the faint light of distant stars and galaxies. It is designed exclusively to detect infrared light emitted by distant stars, planets, and clouds of gas and dust. I wish you clear skies and open eyes.