The Webb Space Telescope has discovered a super Jupiter orbiting a neighboring star, revealing a planet with an exceptionally long orbital period. This gas giant, roughly the same diameter as Jupiter but six times its mass, has an atmosphere rich in hydrogen like its solar system counterpart.
The planet, located 12 light-years away in the Epsilon Indi A system, takes between 100 to 250 years to complete one orbit around its star. Scientists had suspected a large planet in this system, but were surprised by its mass and distance from the star. These findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature by an international team led by Elisabeth Matthews of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.
Using a special shading device on the Webb telescope to block starlight, astronomers could directly observe the planet as a pinpoint of infrared light. The planet and its star, both 3.5 billion years old, are younger than our solar system but still considered ancient. Despite its brightness and proximity to our solar system, the star is visible to the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere.
“This is a gas giant with no hard surface or liquid water oceans,” Matthews said, noting the unlikelihood of life. However, studying such planets can help scientists understand the evolution of gas giants over billions of years. Since the first exoplanets were confirmed in the early 1990s, NASA’s tally has reached 5,690 as of mid-July. The Webb telescope, launched in 2021, continues to expand our understanding of distant planetary systems.
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