James Webb telescope captures ‘Super-Jupiter’ : 5 GK & Current Affairs Facts

September 7, 2022

Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured its first image of an exoplanet at, or planet outside the Solar System.

The captured exoplanet is named HIP 65426 b and is about six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter. It was first discovered in 2017 using the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.
This young planet is a “super-Jupiter”, meaning it is a gas giant that is more massive than Jupiter. It is composed of gas in origin and has no rocky surface, meaning that the found planet may not be habitable.
Exoplanets have been observed through the telescope’s four different light filters, proving how James Webb’s powerful infrared technology can easily capture worlds beyond our solar system.
NASA revealed that it is a young planet about 15 to 20 million years older than our 4.5 billion year old Earth.
The planet is located 315 lightyears away and is orbiting at a significant distance from its Star, allowing the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to take a picture of the same. The distance between exoplanet and its star is about 100 times that which is between Earth and Sun.

The James Webb Space Telescope is a large infrared telescope. It will study every phase in the history of universe. This includes formation of solar system, Big Bang and other theories that support life on other planets.
The Telescope is capable of looking about the past such as the first galaxies formed in the early universe through its longer wavelengths. These wavelengths will help the telescope to peer inside dust clouds from where the planets and stars are formed.
The telescope is to travel at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from the earth.
The telescope is to be launched in Ariane 5 ECA rocket from French Guiana in South America. The rocket is from the European Space Agency.