by By Will Dunham
Washington (Reuters) -In addition to providing information about the early universe, the James Webb Space Telescope has obtained valuable data since the 2021 launch about various known planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets. Now, for the first time, Webb has discovered an exoplanet that is never known before.
Webb directly depicted a young gas giant planet about the size of Saturn, the second largest planet of our solar system, around a star smaller than the sun that was about 110 light years of the earth in the Constellation Antlia, said researchers. A light year is the distance that lights in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).
Most of the approximately 5,900 exoplanets that have been discovered since the 1990s are detected using indirect methods, such as observation of the light dim of the light of a star when a planet passes it, called the transit method. Less than 2% of them is immediately depicted, as Webb did with the newly identified planet.
Although this planet is great when it is considered in the context of our solar system, it is actually the least massive that has ever been discovered by direct imaging – 10 times less massive than the previous record holder. This speaks about the sensitivity of the instruments of Webb.
This discovery was achieved with the help of a French-produced Coronagraph, a device that blocks the bright light of a star, installed on Webb’s Central infrared instrument or Miri.
“Webb opens a new Window – in Terms of Mass and the distance of a planet to the star – of exoplanets that had not leg accessible to observations so far. This is important to explore the diversity of exoplanetary systems and understand howhy form and evolve, SAIDABEMIEMIE, SADAGHEAVOMIE, SADOST -SAIDAST Agency CNRS and Lira/Observatoire de Paris, Lead Author of the Study Published on Wednesday in the Journal Nature.
The planet revolves around his hostess, called TWA 7, at a distance of about 52 times larger than the orbital distance of the earth of the sun. To put that in perspective, the outer planet Neptune of our solar system around 30 times further from the sun than the earth. The transit method for discovering exoplanets is particularly useful for spotting that in a job to see their host star rather than seeing much further as the newly identified.
“Indirect methods offer incredible information for planets close to their stars. Imaging is needed to further detect and characterize planets robust, usually 10 times the distance from the earth,” Lagrange said.
The birth of a planetary system starts with a large cloud of gas and dust – called a molecular cloud – that collapses under his own gravity to form a central star. Remaining material that runs around the star in what is called a protoplanetary disk forms planets.
The star and the planet in this study are practical newborns – about 6 million years old, compared to the age of the sun and our solar system of approximately 4.5 billion years.
Because of the angle at which this planetary system is observed – essentially upwards from top instead of the side – the researchers were able to distinguish the structure of the remaining disc. It has two wide concentric ringing structures consisting of rocky and dusty material and a narrow ring that contains the planet.
The researchers do not yet know the composition of the atmosphere of the planet, although future Webb observations can give an answer. They also do not know for sure whether the planet, being as young as it is, still wins mass by collecting extra material around it.
Although this planet is the smallest ever depicted immediately, it is still much more massive than rocky planets such as the earth that can be good candidates in the search for life outside our solar system. Even with its enormous possibilities to observe the cosmos in near-infrared and central infrared wave lengths, Webb is still unable to immediately depict exoplanets the size of the earth.
“I am looking forward to it, I hope that the projects of direct imaging of earth-like planets and searches for possible signs of life will become a reality,” Lagrange said.
(Reporting by Will Dunham, editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
