Likely Saturn-Mass Planet Imaged by NASA Webb Is Lightest Ever Seen

Summary
The newfound planet represents Webb’s first direct image discovery of a planet.
Almost 6,000 exoplanets have been discovered to date. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has just added another likely planet to that list: a Saturn-mass planet named TWA 7 b. Astronomers found it by blocking the light of its host star to reveal the hidden planet. It’s located in a gap in one of three dust rings that were discovered around the star TWA 7 by previous ground-based observations. The object’s brightness, color, distance from the star, and position within the ring are consistent with theoretical predictions for a planet that is expected to be sculpting the surrounding debris disk.
Visit NASA Science to view the full news release including article text and associated Webb imagery, graphics, scientific visualizations, videos, captions, text descriptions, and other information.
News releases highlighting the discoveries of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are produced for NASA by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, under NASA Contract NAS5-03127. News release content is developed by the News Team in STScI’s Office of Public Outreach.
News Center Prefooter
Inbox Astronomy
Sign up to receive the latest news, images, and discoveries about the universe:
Contact our News Team
Ask the News Team
Contact our Outreach Office
Ask the Outreach Office