The James Webb Space Telescope has directly imaged an exoplanet for the first time. The work, which is described as an extremely important event, once again reveals the talents of James Webb. On the other hand, the extremely difficult and rare occurrence of direct imaging of exoplanets may enable Webb to be used more in this way in the future.
Of the exoplanets said to be planets orbiting another star outside the Solar System, about 5000 have been discovered and confirmed so far. Almost all of these discoveries have been made by analyzing the light that comes to us as it passes in front of its own stars.
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Webb used four different filters in his observation and photographed the planet called HIP 65426 b. About six to eight times larger than Jupiter, this gas giant is only 15 to 20 million years old. Considering that the Earth is about 5 billion years old, we can say that this planet is at the very beginning of its life.
Exoplanets are difficult to view
To view a planet orbiting a star, the light from the star has to be blocked in some way. Because the star is much brighter than the planet, making it extremely difficult to view. James Webb has a tool called a coronagraph to solve this problem. In this way, the light of the star is suppressed and a more detailed planet photo is obtained with the processing of the image obtained.
Aarynn Carter, one of the research participants, said, “I think the most exciting thing is that we’re just getting started. There are many more exoplanet images that will reshape our understanding of physics, chemistry, and their general formation. We may even discover previously unknown planets.” said.
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