The first planet outside our solar system was discovered in the 1990’s, but it wasn’t until more than a decade later astronomers actually obtained a direct image of one. It’s extremely difficult to image an exoplanet, as stars in other planetary systems can be thousands of times brighter and bigger than their planets.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is equipped with a highly sensitive coronagraph, a tiny mask that blocks the light of the star, allowing Webb to image exoplanets.

Webb’s new images of two iconic systems, HR 8799 and 51 Eridani, and their planets have stunned researchers, and provided additional information into the chemical make-up of the young gas giants.