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.

'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.

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

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

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.