The James Webb Telescope has made yet another incredible discovery—this time, it’s a massive planet that may have the potential to support life, according to several space agencies.
Astronomers have found "compelling evidence" of a planet that’s about 100 times the mass of Earth, orbiting a young red dwarf star known as TWA 7 (also called CE Antliae), which is located 34 light-years away.
This newly discovered planet, dubbed TWA 7b, was identified by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most advanced telescope ever launched into space, as stated by NASA.
An initial analysis suggests the object could be a young, cold planet with temperatures hovering around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists note that life can begin to grow and reproduce at temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit and can thrive up to about 251 degrees Fahrenheit.
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An international team of astronomers spotted a faint infrared source within a disk of debris surrounding the star, located about 50 times the distance between Earth and the Sun, according to NASA. They used the telescope’s mid-infrared instrument to suppress the bright glare from the host star, revealing the faint objects nearby.
This technique, known as high-contrast imaging, enables astronomers to directly detect planets that would otherwise be obscured by the "overwhelming" light.
If confirmed, this would be the first time the James Webb telescope has captured a direct image that led to the discovery of a planet, rather than relying on gravitational lensing—a technique based on Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, according to astronomers.
The detection would match the expected position of a planet and explain key features seen in the debris disk, NASA said. The source of the infrared light is located within three dust rings observed surrounding TWA 7.
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The debris disk around TWA 7 is considered one of the youngest known to date, according to a paper published last week in Nature. "Our observations reveal a strong candidate for a planet shaping the structure of the TWA 7 debris disk, and its position is exactly where we expected to find a planet of this mass," said Anne-Marie Lagrange, a researcher at the Observatoire de Paris-PSL and Université Grenoble Alpes in France and the lead author of the paper.
The discovery is an “exciting step forward in our understanding of planetary systems,” added co-author Mathilde Malin, an assistant research associate at Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
According to NASA, the finding highlights the Webb telescope’s ability to explore previously unseen, low-mass planets around nearby stars.