by From Will Dunham
Washington (Reuters) -in addition to providing an abundance of information about the early universe, the James Webb World space telescope has received valuable data on various already known planets via our solar system called Exoplanets since its start of 2021. For the first time, Webb has discovered an exoplanet that has not yet been known.
Webb has depicted a young gas giant planet directly, which is about as large as the Saturn, the second largest planet in our solar system, which circles a star that is smaller than the sun, which is about 110 light years from the earth in the constellation of Antlia, said researcher. A light year is the distance light in one year, 9.5 trillion km (5.9 trillion miles).
Most of the approximately 5,900 exoplanets that have been discovered since the nineties have been proven using indirect methods, for example by observing the light dimming of the light of a star, when a planet in front of it is referred to as a transit method. Less than 2% of them were depicted directly, such as WebB with the newly identified planet.
While this planet is considered in the context of our solar system, it is actually the least massive that has ever been discovered by direct imaging – ten times less massive than the previous record holder. This speaks for the sensitivity of WebB’s instruments.
This discovery was reached with a French-produced coronagraph, a device that blocks the bright light of a star that was installed on the mid-infrared instrument from WebB, or Miri.
“Webb opens a new window – in relation to the mass and the removal of a planet to the star – from exoplanet that has not yet been accessible. This is important to examine and understand the variety of exoplanetary systems and to develop and develop,” said Astronomer Anne -Marie Lagrange of the French research agency CNRS and Lira/observation.
The planet circles its hosts, the TWA 7 is about 52 -larger than the orbital distance of the earth from the sun. To put this into the right perspective, the outermost planet Neptune of our solar system circles about 30 -further away from the sun. The transit method for the discovery of exoplanets is particularly useful to recognize the surroundings near her host star, instead of much further identified as the new.
“Indirect methods provide incredible information for planets near your stars. Imagination is necessary to further recognize and characterize planets, typically ten times the ground route,” said Lagrange.
The birth of a planetary system begins with a large cloud of gas and dust – which is known as molecular cloud – which breaks down under its own gravity in order to form a central star. The remaining material, which rotates around the star in a so -called protoplanetic panes, forms planets.
The star and the planet in this research are practically newborn – about 6 million years old, compared to the age of the sun and our solar system of around 4.5 billion years.
Due to the angle in which this planetary system is observed – essentially viewed from above and not from the side – the researchers were able to recognize the structure of the remaining disk. It has two wide concentric ring -like structures that consist of rocky and dusty material and a narrow ring in which the planet is located.
The researchers do not yet know the composition of the planet’s atmosphere, although future WebB observations could give an answer. You are also not sure whether the planet, which is as young as it is, still gains mass by accumulating additional material.
While this planet of the smallest, which was ever shown directly, it is still much more massive than rocky planets like earth that could be good candidates in search of life beyond our solar system. Even with its enormous skills to observe the cosmos in wavelengths near infrared and middle infrared, WebB is still unable to directly present exoplanets the size of earth size.
“I look forward to it, I hope that the projects of direct imaging of earth -like planets and the search for possible signs of life will be,” said Lagrange.
(Reporting according to Will Dunham, editing of Rosalba O’Brien)
