James Webb: The first exoplanet filmed directly

The first planet outside the solar system was directly photographed
From
Stefan Detters
astronews.com
September 6, 2022

The first show of it James Webb Space Telescope: First time James Webb Make a direct picture of an exoplanet. The distant world is a gas giant much larger than Jupiter and orbits its host star at a great distance. Many of these observations are likely to follow.

“This is a crucial moment, not only father webbut also for astronomy in general,” says Sasha Hinckley, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Exeter, who led the International Monitoring Team. James Webb Space Telescope
Jupiter’s mass can be seen about six to twelve times. However, new observations can contribute to the fact that the mass of the planet will soon be known more precisely. The distant world is probably about 15 to 20 million years old, and therefore much younger than Earth.

The planet surrounding the star HIP was 65426 in 2017 using the SPHERE . instrument
very large telescope It was discovered by ESO’s European Southern Observatory in Chile and recorded for the first time in the short-wavelength infrared range (astronews.com reported). Webb’s long-wavelength infrared image reveals new details that ground-based telescopes cannot see due to interference from Earth’s atmosphere.

Because HIP 65426 b is about a hundred times farther from its central star than the Earth is from the Sun, web Separate the planet a little from the star in the image. Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid Infrared (MIRI) Device from web Both are equipped with coronagraphs. These are small masks that can block out the bright light of a star and web So he was able to directly photograph an exoplanet. “It was really impressive how well the coronal Webb books can suppress the light from the host star,” Hinckley says.

Direct images of exoplanets are difficult because the stars are much brighter than their planets. Planet HIP 65426 b 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. In each image, taken through different filters, the planet appears as a slightly different patch of light.

Aarynn Carter from The . says University of California In Santa Cruz, who led the image analysis. “Initially only the light from the star was visible, but through careful image processing I was able to remove that light and reveal the planet.” Exoplanets have previously been directly observed by other telescopes. Ms James Webb However, HIP 65426 b is the first.

Direct observation of extrasolar planets allows a much better investigation of distant worlds, because their light can be directly examined spectroscopically. The team will summarize their observations and analysis of HIP 65426 b and submit them to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.