Webb captures infrared images of five exoplanets orbiting two different stars
Click for original image.
Using the Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have taken two different direct false-color infrared images of exoplanets orbiting the stars HR 8799 (130 light years away) and 51 Eridani (97 light years away.
The image of the four gas giants orbiting HR 8799 is to the right, cropped, reduced, and slightly enhanced to post here. From the caption:
The closest planet to the star, HR 8799 e, orbits 1.5 billion miles from its star, which in our solar system would be located between the orbit of Saturn and Neptune. The furthest, HR 8799 b, orbits around 6.3 billion miles from the star, more than twice Neptune’s orbital distance. Colors are applied to filters from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), revealing their intrinsic differences. A star symbol marks the location of the host star HR 8799, whose light has been blocked by the coronagraph. In this image, the color blue is assigned to 4.1 micron light, green to 4.3 micron light, and red to the 4.6 micron light.
The Webb false color infrared picture taken of one of the exoplanets orbiting the star 51 Eridani is also at the link, showing “a cool, young exoplanet that orbits 890 million miles from its star, similar to Saturn’s orbit in our solar system.”
The data from the HR 8799 image suggests these gas giants have a lot of carbon dioxide gas, and thus might be growing by pulling in material from the star’s accretion disk.
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Click for original image.
Using the Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have taken two different direct false-color infrared images of exoplanets orbiting the stars HR 8799 (130 light years away) and 51 Eridani (97 light years away.
The image of the four gas giants orbiting HR 8799 is to the right, cropped, reduced, and slightly enhanced to post here. From the caption:
The closest planet to the star, HR 8799 e, orbits 1.5 billion miles from its star, which in our solar system would be located between the orbit of Saturn and Neptune. The furthest, HR 8799 b, orbits around 6.3 billion miles from the star, more than twice Neptune’s orbital distance. Colors are applied to filters from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), revealing their intrinsic differences. A star symbol marks the location of the host star HR 8799, whose light has been blocked by the coronagraph. In this image, the color blue is assigned to 4.1 micron light, green to 4.3 micron light, and red to the 4.6 micron light.
The Webb false color infrared picture taken of one of the exoplanets orbiting the star 51 Eridani is also at the link, showing “a cool, young exoplanet that orbits 890 million miles from its star, similar to Saturn’s orbit in our solar system.”
The data from the HR 8799 image suggests these gas giants have a lot of carbon dioxide gas, and thus might be growing by pulling in material from the star’s accretion disk.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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