Photos of planets outside our solar system

Can astronomers see a planet outside our Solar System?

For the first time, astronomers have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable.

What was the first direct image of a planet outside our Solar System?

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was able to capture the first direct image of a planet located outside of our solar system. James Webb Space Telescope Located 355 light-years from Earth, the exoplanet is about six to twelve times the mass of Jupiter, according to NASA.

Can the Webb Telescope find habitable planets?

The observations hint at how the Webb telescope could be used to search for potentially habitable planets elsewhere in the universe. The exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA

Can a telescope see exoplanets?

It’s not the first time a telescope has captured images of exoplanets. In 2004, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile captured a faint image of another planet about five times larger than Jupiter orbiting a star 230 light years away.

What does Webb's infrared image tell us about exoplanets?

The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable. The image, as seen through four different light filters, shows how Webb’s powerful infrared gaze can easily capture worlds beyond our solar system, pointing the way to future observations that will reveal more information than ever before about exoplanets.

Could Webb find a distant planet?

But Webb’s first capture of an exoplanet already hints at future possibilities for studying distant worlds. Since HIP 65426 b is about 100 times farther from its host star than Earth is from the Sun, it is sufficiently distant from the star that Webb can easily separate the planet from the star in the image.