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Webb Telescope Photographs ‘Strange’ Cold Planet Around Nearby Star
- On June 10, 2025, NASA presented the first direct image of the cold exoplanet 14 Herculis c at a conference in Anchorage, Alaska.
- This discovery followed Webb’s December 2021 launch and was enabled by the telescope’s infrared sensitivity, revealing a planet about seven times Jupiter’s mass.
- The 14 Herculis system is unusual because its two gas giants orbit their star in highly inclined planes crossing at about 40 degrees, an arrangement described as chaotic and abnormal.
- Co-Author William Balmer explained that imaging colder exoplanets presents greater challenges, and Webb’s highly sensitive infrared capabilities have enabled exploration into this previously inaccessible area. He highlighted that the planet’s temperature, around 26°F, makes it the coldest one captured in an image so far.
- The finding implies planetary systems can differ greatly from our solar system and suggests early violent events shaped 14 Herculis c’s orbit, offering new insights into planetary evolution.
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11 Articles
Webb telescope images frigid exoplanet in strange orbit
A planetary system described as abnormal, chaotic, and strange by researchers has come into clearer view with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Using Webb's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), researchers have successfully imaged one of two known planets surrounding the star 14 Herculis, located 60 light-years away from Earth in our own Milky Way galaxy.
Webb Directly Observes a Frigid Exoplanet
Most exoplanets have been detected indirectly through the transit or radial velocity method. But here's an image of the exoplanet 14 Herculis c captured by Webb. It has been described as a "chaotic" and "abnormal" planetary system and is about 7 Jupiter masses, but with a surface temperature of only -3°C. The discovery offers new insights into how planetary systems can develop in dramatically different ways from our own Solar System.
Images of extrasolar planets, we don't have much yet to put ourselves under the tooth. But the one published today by the Nasa has something even more special. It reveals, for the first time, a cold exoplanet.
SPECULOOS: Five Years Hunting Terrestrial Planets Around Ultra-cool Dwarfs - Astrobiology
The SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) project aims to detect temperate terrestrial planets transiting nearby ultracool dwarfs, including late M-dwarf stars and brown dwarfs, which are well-suited for atmospheric characterization using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and upcoming giant telescopes like the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Led by the University […] The post SPECULOOS: Five Years Hunt…
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