News Planetary Science

In a first, the Webb telescope found a planet by actually ‘seeing’ it

JWST discovered the Saturn-sized world orbiting a young star 111 light-years away

This image shows a star, center, whose light is blocked so that the surrounding dust rings are visible. Three are labeled and a spot on the edge of one is marked with concentric circles to denote the location of a purported exoplanet spotted by the Webb telescope.

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to directly image a new exoplanet — represented by CC#1 in the image — within the three-ring debris disk surrounding the star TWA 7.

A.-M. Lagrange et al/Nature 2025, ESO, JWST

By Adam Mann

For the first time ever, the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered an exoplanet by directly imaging it.