For the first time in history: Webb’s telescope directly captured images of two exoplanets – Passionategeekz

Passionategeekz On June 16, in the deep southern celestial area more than 300 light years away from the earth, scientists successfully captured clear images of a pair of strange exoplanets through the James Webb Space Telescope. The discovery comes from the YSES-1 galaxy, where one planet has clouds that resemble sand, and the other is surrounded by a dust disk that might nurture satellites.

The two planets in the YSES-1 galaxy—YSES-1b and YSES-1c— are gas giants with a mass of 5 to 15 times that of Jupiter and orbiting a star that is similar to the sun but extremely young. This star is only about 16.7 million years old, compared to our sun 4.6 billion years ago. In addition, the orbits of these two planets are extremely large, with YSES-1b being four times the distance from its star than Pluto and the Sun.

In this study, scientists directly photographed the “silicate cloud” on exoplanets for the first time. This cloud consists of hot, ultra-fine rock particles, which are very different from the white, fluffy clouds commonly found on Earth, and are more like mineral ash erupting when a volcano erupts. The clouds of YSES-1c may have a hazy and dark appearance, as if the sky is filled with glass powder.

Even more surprisingly, YSES-1b is surrounded by a ring planetary dust disk, which may be the birthplace of the satellite. Scientists have discovered through computer model analysis that the temperature of this dust disk is as high as about 200 to 300 degrees Celsius. Since this dust disk is older than the two dust disks found on other exoplanets before, the mechanisms of its formation or maintenance remain a mystery. The researchers speculated that the dust may have been caused by collisions between small rocky celestial bodies left behind after the planet’s formation.

According to Passionategeekz, the results of this research are not only direct photographing these two planets, but also because they provide extremely rare direct observation data. Generally speaking, since the brightness of a planet is much lower than the stars it orbits, and its light is easily obscured by stars when it is in a close range, exoplanets that can be directly imaged are extremely rare. Due to their particularity of distance, temperature and size, YSES-1b and YSES-1c enable scientists to obtain clear images through thermal infrared imaging technology.

“The coolest thing about this system is that unlike most planets, we can actually take pictures of them!” study co-author Evert Nasedkin said on social platform Bluesky. The idea for this pioneering project was formed long before the Webb Telescope was put into use. Scientists have assumed that the Webb telescope can photograph these two planets at the same time, thus “killing two birds with one stone.”

Through observations of the YSES-1 system, scientists can not only study molecules in the planet’s atmosphere, but also directly detect the presence of cloud particles and dust disks. These discoveries provide unique opportunities for studying the formation and evolution of planets and satellites, and also open up new directions for future astronomy research.

Advertising statement: The external redirect links (including, not limited to, hyperlinks, QR codes, passwords, etc.) contained in the article are used to convey more information and save selection time. The results are for reference only. All articles from Passionategeekz include this statement.