Photographing exoplanets directly is difficult because the stars are much brighter than them, NASA emphasizes.
Telescope “James Webb” first photographed an exoplanet – gas giant HIP 65426 b, reports NASA.
HIP 65426 b is a fairly young planet, 15 to 20 million years old (our Earth is about 4.5 billion years old). It is 6-12 times greater than the mass of the largest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter.
Astronomers discovered the planet in 2017 using the Sphere instrument at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile and imaged it at short infrared wavelengths.
“Webb's photo at longer infrared waves reveals new details that ground-based telescopes will not be able to detect due to the infrared glow of the Earth's atmosphere,” explains NASA.
Talk about out of this world! This is Webb's first direct image of a planet outside of our solar system, and it hints at Webb's future possibilities for studying distant worlds: https://t.co/ITcl6RItLa
Not what you expected? Let's walk through the details👇 pic.twitter.com/bCgzW0dcUE
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) September 1, 2022
< /span> Webb” launched into space in 2021. The first photo taken by the telescope was published in July 2022.
