this James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured the first image of an exoplanet or exoplanet solar system.
The telescope’s infrared observations of exoplanet HIP 65426 b were disclosed in a paper submitted Thursday (September 1st) to the preprint database. arXiv (opens in new tab). The article has not yet undergone peer review, but is discussed. and a blog post on NASA’s website (opens in new tab).
The young planet is a “super Jupiter”, that is, a gas giant larger than the planet. Jupiter – actually about six to eight times larger. It orbits about twice the size of an A-type star. Sun and about 349 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus.
“This is an important moment for several reasons,” said lead author and postdoctoral researcher Aarynn Carter at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “First, this is the wavelength at which we have imaged a planet beyond 5 microns for the first time”.
Microns or micrometers are how scientists measure wavelengths of light in the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelengths of infrared light are longer than others. visible light and gains start at 0.75 microns. Unlike other space telescopes, the JWST can cover the range of 0.6 to 28 micrometers. By comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope covers infrared red only down to 2.5 microns, while ground-based telescopes have a maximum of 2.2 microns. Thus, JWST gives astronomers a much larger view of objects than was previously possible.
“We can cover the full luminous wavelength ranges of these objects and get tight constraints on their luminosity and therefore other properties such as mass. heat and radius,” Carter said. Such detailed analyzes will be published in the future, he said.
The astronomers observed HIP 65426 b using seven filters, each of which allows a specific infrared light to pass through. The precision of the telescope surprised them.
“The telescope is more sensitive than we expected, but also very stable,” Carter said, showing that JWST is powerful enough to detect smaller exoplanets that have never been seen before.
“Previously we were limited to super Jupiter detections, but now we have the potential to display objects similar to Uranus and Neptune for accurate targets,” Carter said. Said.
Exoplanets are difficult to view directly because planets are easily lost in the glow of a star. JWST suppresses glare by using a disk called a coronagraph in both its Near Infrared Camera and Mid Infrared Instrument. HIP 65426 b as original Detected in July 2017 (opens in new tab) Light at short infrared wavelengths was obtained by scientists using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and was chosen to test the sensitivity of the JWST and figure out how best to make direct imaging of exoplanets in mid-infrared light. .
“We chose this star because we know it has a well-established planet that is ripe for direct imaging and will therefore be an outstanding first target for testing JWST coronagraphs,” said Sasha Hinkley, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Principal investigator at the University of Exeter and one of the 13 JWST Early Broadcast Science Programs told Live Science. The JWST Early Release Science Programs during the first five months of JWST’s scientific operations are designed to provide scientists with immediate access to early data from specific scientific observations.
HIP 65426 b is easier to distinguish from its host star, as it is 100 times farther from its host star than Earth is from the sun, but still 10,000 times fainter than its host star (opens in new tab) in the near infrared.
“This is a particularly exciting start to this new era of catching. photons “Directly from exoplanet atmospheres at entirely new wavelengths that should last for the next 20 years,” Hinkley said. Said.
Originally published on Live Science.
