On Thursday, the James Webb Space Telescope team released their first direct image of a planet outside our solar system. Exoplanet HIP 65426b is 15 to 20 million years old and 100 times farther away from its star than Earth is from the sun. Though the exoplanet was first discovered in 2017 from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, it was not photographed until the James Webb Space Telescope captured its four different bands of infrared light. NASA said that the planet is a gas giant 6 to 12 times the mass of Jupiter. Their research has yet to be peer reviewed. Sasha Hinkley, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Exeter, said in a Nasa press release: “This is a transformative moment, not only for Webb but also for astronomy generally.”
