The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has accomplished a significant milestone by capturing the first direct image of the smallest known exoplanet, TWA 7b, located approximately 111 light-years away. This planetary body, with a mass relative to Saturn, is ten times less massive than previously observed exoplanets. The discovery was made possible through a technique that involved simulating an eclipse to filter out starlight, revealing the faint infrared glow of the exoplanet. Notably, the technique was developed over two decades ago to observe planetary systems more effectively.
Detecting exoplanets is not easy in general. Imaging them is even more challenging. This is why the lightest planets imaged before TWA 7b were massive giants, a few times Jupiter's mass.
We were finally able to simulate the effects of an eclipse, which allowed us to filter out the excess starlight and spot the exoplanet's faint infrared glow.
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