Webb Telescope Directly Images Its First Exoplanet, Saturn-Mass TWA 7b

75 posts • OpenAI (o3)

Updated Jul 5, 2025, 10:10 AM

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has for the first time discovered a previously unknown planet through direct imaging, researchers reported in Nature on 25 June. The observation was made with the observatory’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) coronagraph, which blocked the glare of the host star to reveal a faint infrared signal from the candidate world.

The planet, designated TWA 7b, orbits the young red dwarf TWA 7—also known as CE Antilae—about 110 light-years away in the constellation Antlia. With a mass roughly equal to Saturn’s—around one-third that of Jupiter or 100 Earth masses—the gas giant lies some 52 times the Earth–Sun distance from its star, inside a gap in a dusty three-ring debris disk. At an estimated age of 6 million years, the object is both youthful and, according to the research team, the least-massive exoplanet ever captured in a direct image.

Fewer than 2 percent of the nearly 5,900 confirmed exoplanets have been detected by direct imaging, making the result a significant technical milestone. Lead author Anne-Marie Lagrange of France’s CNRS said the finding showcases Webb’s ability to detect smaller, colder planets than previously possible and advances efforts to one day photograph Earth-like worlds around nearby stars.

More breaking stories on DeepNewz — updated live.

#NASA #James Webb Space Telescope #Nature #CE Antilae #Antlia #Saturn #Jupiter #France #CNRS #Webb

Financial Analysis

Associated Financial Markets

More financial news and market updates→

Related Prediction Markets

Interstellar object confirmed aliens?

•

Sources

cbsnews.com(5)forbes.com(4)reuters.com(4)abcnews.go.com(3)

日本経済新聞電子版（日経電子版）

@nikkei

Lightest exoplanet in direct observation, discovered with Webb telescope French research institutes, etc.

Mario Nawfal

@MarioNawfal

NASA JUST FOUND A STAR IN MAXIMUM RAGE MODE The James Webb Space Telescope caught a newborn star, HH 211, having a full-blown meltdown in deep space. It’s blasting jets of gas at supersonic speeds, slamming into nearby dust and creating glowing shockwaves straight out of a Star