James Webb Space Telescope Discovers Its First Exoplanet (space.com) 10
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first new exoplanet, TWA 7b -- a young, low-mass planet about 100 times the mass of Earth, making it the lightest planet ever directly imaged beyond the solar system. Space.com reports: TWA 7b was discovered in the debris rings that surround the low-mass star CE Antilae, also known as TWA 7, located around 111 light-years from Earth. CE Antilae is a very young star, estimated to be around just a few million years old. If that seems ancient, consider the sun, a "middle-aged" star, is around 4.6 billion years old.
[...] The disk of CE Antilae is divided into three distinct rings, one of which is narrow and bounded by two empty "lanes" mostly devoid of matter. When imaging this ring, the JWST spotted an infrared-emitting source, which the team of astronomers determined is most likely a young exoplanet. They then used simulations that confirmed the formation of a thin ring and a "hole" exactly where this planet is positioned, corresponding to JWST observations. The research has been published in the journal Nature.
[...] The disk of CE Antilae is divided into three distinct rings, one of which is narrow and bounded by two empty "lanes" mostly devoid of matter. When imaging this ring, the JWST spotted an infrared-emitting source, which the team of astronomers determined is most likely a young exoplanet. They then used simulations that confirmed the formation of a thin ring and a "hole" exactly where this planet is positioned, corresponding to JWST observations. The research has been published in the journal Nature.
WRONG! Shame on all the misreporting (Score:2)
Who the fuck is writing their science stories ?!
This is NOT the first exoplanet discovered by JWST.
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Jan 11, 2023
Jeremy Rehm
A team led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, has confirmed the discovery of an exoplanet — a planet orbiting another star — by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
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Source: https://www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-releases/230111b-nasa-webb-and-apl-identify-telescope-first-rock
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The Nature paper says it's the first *protoplanet* ever detected. They show up as empty ring within the dust disk of a young star, but the originating planet never ere observed directly until JWST brought enough sensitivity.
Re:WRONG! Shame on all the misreporting (Score:5, Informative)
I know English is a very nuanced language but before writing WRONG in all caps it's worth investigating the differences between stories.
The JWST just discovered its first new exoplanet. "New". TWA 7b was previously unknown. The JWST has never discovered an exoplanet before.
By comparison your story is about LHS 475b, a planet that was discovered by TESS, not by JWST. The discovery was "confirmed" by JWST. That is also why it was picked as an early target for JWST, scientists were reasonably sure the planet was there from the TESS transit data which is where it was discovered.
"discovery" "confirmation" and "new" all have specific meanings. There is nothing wrong with the science reporting here.
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"discovery" "confirmation" and "new" all have specific meanings. There is nothing wrong with the science reporting here.
All we really know at this point is there is a discovery about rings in space and it's not about Uranus.
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The science reporting is WRONG here.
100 times mass of earth is light? (Score:2)
Saturn is 80 times the mass of earth , is that considered light too?
Re:100 times mass of earth is light? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, a planet imaged outside of our solar system the size of Saturn would be amazingly low-mass.
Since "light" (low-mass) has no fucking absolute meaning, it requires some kind of reference.
You applied Earth (probably since it was referenced in multiples of Earth's mass).
They applied "the normal size of directly imaged extra-solar planets."
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Re: (Score:1)
Given a big enough body of water, it will float.