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   AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Friday, 27-Jun-2025 11:01:58 JST AkaSci 🛰️

   Astronomers using the JWST have captured a direct image of a planet with a mass similar to Saturn orbiting the young star TWA 7 (6.4 mil years old, 34 ly away).

   If confirmed, this will be Webb’s first direct image discovery of a planet. Webb and ground based telescopes have imaged previously known exoplanets before.

   Note that most exoplanets are discovered by observing dips in light from its star as the exoplanet periodically eclipses it.

   https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09150-4
   https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/likely-saturn-mass-planet-imaged-by-nasa-webb-is-lightest-ever-seen/
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     AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Friday, 27-Jun-2025 11:01:58 JST AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     When we read headlines like "The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its 1st exoplanet and snapped its picture," we expect images like the ones shown below 😀

     Alas, they look more like the image above, a few pixels wide. Images like the ones below would require a much more powerful telescope, such as one located > 550 AU away and which uses the Sun as a gravitational lens 😎.

     https://www.nasa.gov/missions/kepler/about-half-of-sun-like-stars-could-host-rocky-potentially-habitable-planets/
     https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/take-a-virtual-trip-to-a-strange-new-world-with-nasa/
     https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20180003479/downloads/20180003479.pdf
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     Tim Chambers repeated this.
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     AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Friday, 27-Jun-2025 11:01:58 JST AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     Cartoon "Exoplanet System" by XKCD, June 16, 2025.

     Title text: "Sure, this exoplanet we discovered may seem hostile to life, but our calculations suggest it's actually in the accretion disc's habitable zone."

     https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3103:_Exoplanet_System
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