Webb Telescope Spots Lightest Ever Directly Imaged Exoplanet

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TWA 7b is not just any exoplanet - it's the lightest planet ever directly photographed, weighing just one-third of Jupiter's mass.

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While thousands of exoplanets have been found indirectly, less than 2% have been directly imaged - making Webb's achievement truly exceptional.

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The young planet sits in a gap within the debris disk surrounding its star, actively shaping the material around it through gravity.

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How did astronomers spot such a faint object? Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument uses a special coronagraph to block the star's blinding light.

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At just 6 million years old (compared to our 4.5-billion-year-old solar system), TWA 7b still glows with heat from its recent formation.

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"The basic problem is that the star is bright and the planet seems to be a little faint," explains lead researcher Dr. Anne-Marie Lagrange.

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With a surface temperature of 47°C, TWA 7b orbits its star at a distance 52 times greater than Earth's distance from the Sun.

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This breakthrough opens the door to discovering smaller planets orbiting farther from their stars, revealing new insights into how planetary systems form.

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