Baby’s first exoplanet capture 🍼
@NASAWebb captured its first image of a planet outside of our solar system—a preview of future observations that will reveal more about exoplanets.
While this is not the first direct image of an exoplanet taken from space, HIP 65426 b points the way forward for Webb’s exoplanet exploration.
These images show the exoplanet in different bands of infrared light, as seen from Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared instrument (MIRI). They look different because of the ways different instruments capture light. A set of masks within each instrument, called a coronagraph, blocks out the host star’s light so that the planet can be seen. The small white star in each image marks the location of the exoplanet’s host star, which has been subtracted using the coronagraphs and image processing.
The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable. It's about six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter, and young as planets go—about 15 to 20 million years old, compared to our 4.5-billion-year-old Earth.
Taking direct images of exoplanets is challenging because stars are so much brighter than planets. The HIP 65426 b planet is more than 10,000 times fainter than its host star in the near-infrared, and a few thousand times fainter in the mid-infrared.
Image descriptions:
1: Webb’s NIRCam view shows a purple dot with purple bars at 11 & 5 o’clock, which are telescope artifacts, not physically present. The planet & artifacts have been colored purple.
2: Similar NIRCam view colored blue & with artifact bars
3: MIRI view, colored orange. No bars present
4: MIRI view, a red dot
5: Text reads “This image of gas giant HIP 65426 b hints at Webb's future possibilities for studying distant worlds.
Note: This post highlights images from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.
Credits: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI)
#NASA #NASAWebb #Exoplanet #Universe #Space #Planet #Milestones #Astronomy
