NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captures this image of an exoplanet 12 times the mass of Jupiter

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope not even finished yet one years since its launch, and it has left scientists impressed with its discoveries and stunning views. Photograph of planets, stars, and deep space planets. In the latest development, in the first such event, astronomers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to capture a live image of an outer planet solar system. It is essentially made up of gas and has no rocky surface, meaning the planet was found uninhabitable. The captured alien planet, named HIP 65426 b, is about 6 to 12 times the mass of Jupiter.

NASA shared that the image of the exoplanet was seen through four different light filters of the telescope, which proves that James Webb’s powerful infrared technology can easily capture the outer worlds. What is our solar system like? The space agency hopes that this discovery paves the way for future observations that will help reveal more information than before about alien planets.

What is this big planet?

This exoplanet HIP 65426 b was first discovered in 2017 using the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. However, it has been photographed using short wavelengths of infrared light. Webb’s look, on the other hand, uses longer infrared wavelengths, helping to reveal new details about the alien planet. NASA revealed that it is a young planet, about 15 to 20 million years old, compared to our 4.5 billion year old Earth.

NASA said in its blog post, “Since HIP 65426 b is about 100 times farther from its host star than Earth is from the Sun, it is far enough away from the star that Webb could easily separate the planet from the star. star in the picture.”

It’s a challenging mission!

NASA explains that direct imaging of exoplanets is a challenging task. Since stars are so much brighter than planets, it is difficult to capture detailed images of these alien planets. However, the planet HIP 65426 b is 10,000 times lighter than its host star, and is even several thousand times fainter in the mid-infrared.

“Having this image is like digging for treasure in space,” said Aarynn Carter, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California and the lead author of the analysis of Webb’s images. This is not the first time, however, when a space agency has captured a direct image of an alien planet. The predecessor to the James Webb Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope previously captured direct images of the exoplanet – HIP 65426 b.