New Webb discovery: Planet TWA 7b could host life
The James Webb Space Telescope has made another remarkable discovery: a massive planet that could potentially support life, according to several space
Astronomers have identified "compelling evidence" for the existence of a planet approximately 100 times larger than Earth, orbiting a young red dwarf star named TWA 7 (or CE Antilae), 34 light-years away from us, (https://abcnews.go.com/International/nasa-detects-new-planet-temperatures-suggest-habitable-conditions/story?id=123409675 reports.
The planet, named TWA 7b, was detected using the James Webb Telescope, the most powerful space observatory ever built.
An initial analysis suggests the object could be a young, cool planet with a temperature of approximately 49°C (120°F). Researchers say that life, as we know it, can exist between -15°C (5°F) and 122°C (251°F), meaning the planet falls within the possible range for supporting life. An international team of astronomers observed a faint source of infrared light within a disk of dust and debris surrounding the star—roughly 50 times the Earth-Sun distance away.
Using the telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), researchers were able to reduce the star's intense brightness, thus revealing fainter objects nearby. This technique, called high-contrast imaging, allowed them to directly detect the planet – an extremely rare feat.
"Our observations indicate a very likely planet shaping the structure of the debris disk around the star TWA 7, and its position is exactly where we would expect to find a planet of this mass," said Anne-Marie Lagrange, a researcher at the Paris Observatory and Université Grenoble Alpes, lead author of the study.
The discovery represents "an important step in our understanding of planetary systems," added Mathilde Malin, an associate researcher at Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
NASA emphasizes that this achievement demonstrates the Webb Telescope's extraordinary capability to detect small, hard-to-observe planets around nearby stars, opening new prospects for discovering potentially habitable worlds.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
