Webb obtains first direct infrared images of exoplanet
Click for original image.
Using four different infrared instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have obtained the first infrared images of a gas giant with a mass about six to twelve times larger than Jupiter and circling about 100 times farther from its sun.
The montage to the right shows these four images. The white star marks the location of this star, the light of which was blocked out to make the planet’s dim light visible. The bar shapes on either side of the planet in the NIRCam images are artifacts from the instrument’s optics, not objects surrounding the planet.
This is not the first direct image of an exoplanet, as the Hubble Space Telescope has already done so, and done it in the visible spectrum that humans use to see. However, Webb’s infrared images provide a great deal of additional detail about this planet and its immediate surroundings that optical images would not. For example, the MIRI images appear to show us the outer atmosphere of this gas giant.
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Click for original image.
Using four different infrared instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have obtained the first infrared images of a gas giant with a mass about six to twelve times larger than Jupiter and circling about 100 times farther from its sun.
The montage to the right shows these four images. The white star marks the location of this star, the light of which was blocked out to make the planet’s dim light visible. The bar shapes on either side of the planet in the NIRCam images are artifacts from the instrument’s optics, not objects surrounding the planet.
This is not the first direct image of an exoplanet, as the Hubble Space Telescope has already done so, and done it in the visible spectrum that humans use to see. However, Webb’s infrared images provide a great deal of additional detail about this planet and its immediate surroundings that optical images would not. For example, the MIRI images appear to show us the outer atmosphere of this gas giant.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. 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.
Personally, I’m glad the universe is capable of creating planets orbiting stars, stars orbiting galactic black holes, and biochemistry able to appreciate the system for what it appears to be.