Epsilon Indi Ab, located approximately 12 light-years from Earth, is several times the mass of Jupiter and orbits the K-type star Epsilon Indi A, which is similar.
The big picture: The James Webb Space Telescope has directly imaged Epsilon Indi Ab, an exoplanet about 12 light-years from Earth that orbits the star Epsilon Indi A. This gas giant is one of the coldest exoplanets ever directly observed, and the new imaging reveals a world significantly different from initial predictions. It’s more massive, farther from its star, and has a longer orbital period than expected.
Epsilon Indi Ab, located approximately 12 light-years from Earth, is several times the mass of Jupiter and orbits the K-type star Epsilon Indi A, which is similar in age to our Sun but slightly cooler.
This discovery was made by an international team of astronomers using the coronagraph on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared instrument (MIRI). It marked a significant development, as only a few exoplanets have been directly imaged before.
“Webb is ideally suited to conduct mid-infrared imaging, which is extremely hard to do from the ground”, said lead author Elisabeth Matthews of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany.
