Webb telescope discovers its first alien planet
For the first time ever, the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a previously unknown exoplanet: TWA 7b.
Often called “alien planets,” exoplanets are worlds that orbit stars outside our solar system. The telescope directly imaged a young gas giant, similar in size to Saturn, orbiting a small star about 110 light-years away in the constellation Antlia (one light-year equals about 5.9 trillion miles, or 9.5 trillion kilometers).
Discoveries like this remind us that the universe is truly a bright and beautiful place. The cosmos is populated with the birth of stars and the swirling dust of nebulae that create a dance across space, and all we can do is watch from a distance as the galaxy moves in motion around us. To do that, humans have built some of the most spectacular astronomical observatories around the world, capable of peering into the vast void of space and capturing images that astound.
The James Webb Space Telescope has been able to look deeply into the cosmos and obtain some of the world's best pictures of space. Curious? Click through this gallery to see what the telescope was able to find while searching the night sky.
Jupiter's auroras
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured striking new images of Jupiter’s auroras. Like Earth’s northern and southern lights, Jupiter’s auroras are fueled by charged particles from the sun during solar storms. However, Jupiter’s much stronger magnetic field also traps extra particles from Io, its volcanic moon, making the planet’s auroras even more intense.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Webb)
'Cosmic Tornado'
A stunning cosmic alignment located 630 light-years from Earth has resulted in one of the most breathtaking images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The incredible outflow from a young star, Herbig-Haro 49/50 (HH 49/50), perfectly aligned with a distant spiral galaxy, creating a mesmerizing celestial spectacle. Its dramatic, swirling shape earned it the nickname "Cosmic Tornado."
Herbig-Haro objects are bright clouds of gas and dust shaped by young stars or protostars. These clouds form when high-speed jets of charged particles from newborn stars collide with surrounding material, producing brilliant, dynamic patterns in the sky.
Put a ring on it
The first image that is definitely worth bringing to everyone's attention is this glorious high-definition picture captured of the planet Uranus, featuring its 13 brilliant and vibrant rings.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Galactic gathering
It certainly took a lot of processing time for this image of the night sky to be captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Hundreds of galaxies swirl in a dance overhead, and our man-made machinery is only a spectator.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Floating along
Pictured here is a free-floating brown dwarf, which is basically an astronomical object that is neither a star nor a planet, but something in between. This brown dwarf in particular is vibrantly beautiful and has created a cosmic gas cloud that extends well into the depths of space.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Combined effort
In an effort to capture the light of thousands of galaxies swirling through space, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope pooled their combined resources to obtain this colorful view of the universe.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
A distant view
In astronomy, distance is measured not in miles or kilometers but rather in how far light travels in one Earth year. This is known as a "light-year," and the distance is equal to about 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers). The picture you see here is of a group of stars in the southern constellation of Tucana. They are 210,000 light-years away.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Dusty ribbons
In the same group of stars, astronomers were able to capture this image from a different angle. Scientists have commented on the appearance of these cosmic bodies and have claimed that they appear to be speckles of light floating between ribbons of dust.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Mosaic of beauty
The Orion constellation is certainly a beauty to behold in any circumstance, but the James Webb Space Telescope is truly able to capture its beauty and splendor in a mosaic of light.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
The Crab Nebula
Compared to the other cosmic objects on this list, the Crab Nebula is tremendously close, sitting at a meager 6,500 light-years from Earth. The nebula is actually located in the constellation Taurus.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
New beginning
But aside from the light of dying stars, the universe is also full of color from stars that are only just becoming whole. Here you can see a close-up of one such star, which is similar to our very own Sun.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Explosion in the universe
What you see here is a high-definition image of a nebula that was created from the death and explosion of a star.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Pillars of Creation
About 7,000 light-years from Earth, the interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula has created an incredibly beautiful piece of art known as the Pillars of Creation. This image was captured by combining resources from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Color and answers
This image of NGC 346, also captured by Webb and Chandra, provided many answers to astronomers working in the field of star clusters and development. For others, however, it sure does look beautiful!
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Bright future
Pictured here is the rare beauty of a star formation, as gases and color swirl through the cosmos and condense into a single region of space. Over the next few million years, these dust ribbons will band together and shine brighter light into the universe.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Gas release
In the top left of this picture, you can see bright red, clumpy streaks slanted in the same direction and almost at the same degree. They are known as "protostellar outflows," which are essentially jets of gas emitted from newborn stars.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
A dying supernova
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope were again combined to study the remains of the well-known supernova Cassiopeia A. The light from the explosion first reached Earth in the 1690s, but since the supernova is 11,000 light-years away this means that the explosion actually occurred more than 11 millennia ago.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Cosmic Cliffs
The Carina Nebula, floating through the cosmos about 8,500 light-years away, truly brings beauty to the universe with its assemblage of gas and dust. This particular image is known as the Cosmic Cliffs, and for good reason.
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
A close neighbor
Pictured here is the beautiful browns and whites of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is around 163,000 light-years away. This distance makes it one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way.
