The James Webb Space Telescope is NASA’s most precise and technically proficient equipment for observing the wonders of the universe. Astronomers rely on it to unravel the deepest secrets by peaking at distant solar systems and capturing planets like those in ours.
Much recently, the Webb Telescope was able to capture its first direct image of exoplanets nearly 130 light-years away from the Earth. The observatory seized images of four “giant” planets in the solar system of a distant star called HR 8799. This is a fairly young system formed roughly 30 million years ago, a timeline that dwarfs in comparison to our solar system’s 4.6 billion years of age.
The astronomers studying the discovery identified these planets were formed by a process called “core accretion,” where a solid core forms first and is then surrounded by gases from “protoplanetary” disk. This property makes them planets comparable to Saturn and Jupiter.
Although intense light emitting from distant stars can challenge direct photography of exoplanets, the team of astronomers used a device called near-infrared coronograph to block out direct light from HR 8799. This is also the first time, the Webb Telescope managed to capture a direct image of carbon dioxide.
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Researchers also determined the composition of elements such as oxygen, carbon, and iron in the planets’ atmosphere by analyzing the varying wavelengths of the light from each planet. Besides the planetary system of HR 8799, the team also captured direct images of another star, 51 Eridani, along with its exoplanet.
William Balmer, lead author of the study, remarked the importance of knowing our neighboring solar systems and how we can utilize these insights to “understand our own solar system, life, and ourselves in the comparison to other exoplanetary systems, so we can contextualize our existence.”
The team now plans to study other nearby stars and objects orbiting them with hopes to explore more exoplanets and differentiate them from brown dwarfs.
