James Webb Telescope Captures First Direct Image of Saturn-Sized Exoplanet TWA 7b | 110 Light-Years Away Discovery
.jpg)
James Webb Telescope Captures First Direct Image of Saturn-Sized Exoplanet TWA 7b What if we could see a brand-new world orbiting another star—110 light-years away? The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has just done it, capturing the first-ever direct image of a Saturn-sized exoplanet named TWA 7b . This milestone reshapes how we explore the early evolution of planetary systems. How James Webb Detected TWA 7b Astronomers used JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) with a coronagraph, a device that blocks the light of its host star. By suppressing the glare, they revealed TWA 7b—a young gas giant orbiting at a distance about 52 times greater than Earth’s orbit from the Sun . This discovery highlights JWST’s unmatched precision in studying distant worlds. Why Direct Imaging Matters So far, only about 2% of known exoplanets have been directly imaged. Most are detected through indirect methods like the transit technique or radial velocity. Capturing a Saturn...