About the mass of Saturn and 110m light years from Earth, TWA 7 b provides insights into an infant planetary system
The James Webb space telescope has captured unprecedented direct images of a planet beyond our own solar system in its first exoplanet discovery.
The observations reveal a planet, called TWA 7 b, carving its way through a disc of glowing dust and rocky debris in orbit around a star 110m light years from Earth. About the mass of Saturn, the planet is10 times less massive than any previous exoplanet to be directly observed with a telescope and provides fresh insights into a planetary system in its infancy.
Dr Anne-Marie Lagrange, an astrophysicist at the Paris Observatory who led the observations, said: “Here we’re looking at a system that is about 6m years old, so we are really witnessing the youth of the planetary system.”
Since the first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, nearly 6,000 more have been discovered, but almost all of these have been identified through indirect methods such as spotting the planet’s shadow passing across the face of their host star.
