The Webb Space Telescope has discovered a “super Jupiter” around a nearby star. The planet is in a super orbit. Related video above: First photos taken by Japan’s lunar landerThe planet has about the same diameter as Jupiter, but six times its mass. Like Jupiter, its atmosphere is rich in hydrogen. The big difference is that it takes more than a century, perhaps 250 years, to complete one orbit around its star. It is 15 times farther from the star than Earth is from the Sun. Scientists have long suspected a large planet orbiting the star, which is 12 light years away, but they never expected it to be so massive and so far from the star. A light year is 5.8 trillion miles. The new observations reveal that the planet orbits Epsilon Indi A, which is part of a three-star system. An international team led by Elizabeth Matthews of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany collected the image last year and published their findings in the journal Nature on Wednesday. The astronomers directly observed this incredibly old and cold gas giant by using a special light-blocking device on the Webb to obscure the star, a rare and difficult feat. Blocking the star’s light made the planet stand out as a dot in the infrared. The planet and star are 3.5 billion years old, 1 billion years younger than our solar system, but are thought to be older and brighter than expected, Matthews said. The star is so close to the solar system and so bright that it’s visible to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere. Don’t bet on life, though. “This is a gas giant without a solid surface or liquid oceans,” Matthews said in an email. It’s unlikely that there are more gas giants in this solar system, but it’s possible that small rocky worlds lurk there, Matthews said. Jupiter-like worlds could help scientists understand “how these planets evolve on giga-year timescales,” Matthews said. The first planets outside our solar system, so-called “exoplanets,” were identified in the early 1990s. NASA’s tally put the number at 5,690 as of mid-July. Most were detected by the transit method, in which a temporary dip in a star’s light at regular intervals indicates the presence of an orbiting planet. Space- and ground-based telescopes are searching for more planets, with a focus on planets that may be similar to Earth. NASA and the European Space Agency’s Webb Telescope, launched in 2021, is the largest and most powerful space-based observatory. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Media Group. The Associated Press is solely responsible for all content.
The Webb Space Telescope has discovered a “super Jupiter” around a nearby star, and it has a super orbit.
Related video above: First photos from Japan’s lunar lander
The planet has roughly the same diameter as Jupiter but six times its mass, and like Jupiter, its atmosphere is rich in hydrogen.
The big difference is that it will take the planet more than a century, perhaps 250 years, to complete one orbit around its star. The distance from the star to the planet is 15 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.
Scientists have long suspected that a large planet orbits the star 12 light-years away, but they never expected it to be so massive and so far away — one light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. These new observations reveal that the planet orbits Epsilon Indi A, which is part of a three-star system.
An international team led by Elizabeth Matthews of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany collected the images last year and published their findings in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
Astronomers were able to directly observe the incredibly old and cool gas giant by obscuring the star using a special light-blocking device at Webb, a rare and difficult feat: Blocking the star’s light made the planet stand out as a speck in infrared light.
The planet and star are 3.5 billion years old, Matthews said, about a billion years younger than our solar system, but still thought to be older and more luminous than expected.
This star is so close to our solar system and so bright that it can be seen with the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere.
However, please do not risk your life.
“This is a gas giant planet with no solid surface or liquid water oceans,” Matthews said in an email.
It’s unlikely that there are many more gas giants in the solar system, but it’s possible that smaller rocky planets could be lurking, she said.
Jupiter-like worlds could help scientists understand “how these planets evolve over timescales of hundreds of millions of years,” she said.
The first planets, known as exoplanets, were identified in the early 1990s, and as of mid-July, NASA had counted 5,690. Most were detected through the transit method, a periodic dimming of a star’s light that indicates the presence of an orbiting planet.
Space-based and ground-based telescopes continue to search for more celestial objects, especially planets that may be similar to Earth.
NASA and the European Space Agency’s Webb Telescope, launched in 2021, is the largest and most powerful space-based observatory ever built.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
