NASA reveals picture of alien planet outside solar system in 'transformative moment'

dailystar.co.uk:

alien world outside the solar system has been photographed by the James Webb Space Telescope for the first time.The Webb telescope took its first images of a distant exoplanet named HIP 65426 b.The gas giant is six to 12 times as massive as Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system.READ MORE: NASA spacecraft to be flown into asteroid in test that may save Earth from ArmageddonNASA shared the preliminary results online on Thursday (September 1) and while these particular results are part of an ongoing study, they have not yet been put through the process of a peer review or published in a scientific journal.University of Exeter associate professor of physics and astronomy Sasha Hinkley is the lead scientist in a global collaboration in the study of the exoplanet and she called the release of the direct images a "transformative moment".She said in a statement: "This is a transformative moment, not only for Webb but also for astronomy generally."While the Hubble Space Telescope has taken pictures of other alien worlds in the past, the brightness of a planet’s nearby star can hide the light coming from that exoplanet.The advantage of the direct images of HIP 65426 b is Webb's instruments possessed coronagraphs that can reduce the glare of a nearby star, thereby focusing the image of the exoplanet.Dr Hinkley praised the equipment used to provide the direct images of HIP 65426 b.“It was really impressive how well the Webb coronagraphs worked to suppress the light of the host star,” she said.To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.Multiple filters were used in the photography of the images alongside Webb’s Near-infrared camera (Nircam) and Mid-infrared instrument.