The James Webb Space Telescope has found a giant planet in a triple star system only 12 light-years from Earth.
This exoplanet, named Epsilon Indi Ab (or Eps Ind Ab), is a gas giant more than six times the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.
Eps Ind Ab is special because it’s the first planet ever photographed directly from space, without first being seen by a telescope on Earth. Gas giants like Eps Ind Ab, Jupiter, and Saturn do not have solid ground. They are made mostly of swirling helium and hydrogen gases around a solid core.
Interestingly, Eps Ind Ab was found in a different location than scientists expected.
This bright and cold planet has an estimated temperature of only 2 degrees Celsius, which is much colder than other gas giants the James Webb Telescope has studied.
Eps Ind Ab takes a very long time to orbit its star. While it takes Earth one year to orbit the Sun, Eps Ind Ab takes 200 Earth years to complete one orbit. Scientists hope to learn more about how gas planets form and evolve over time by studying this new discovery.
