Produced by: Manoj Kumar
Credit : NASA
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured stunning images of giant exoplanets in HR 8799, revealing new insights into how they formed.
Credit : NASA
Webb’s data shows that HR 8799’s four gas giants likely formed via core accretion, the same process that shaped Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system.
Credit : NASA
Webb detected carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the exoplanets’ atmospheres, proving they contain heavier elements crucial to planetary formation.
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Using a powerful coronagraph, Webb blocked the blinding light of the host star, allowing astronomers to directly image these distant worlds.
HR 8799 is just 30 million years old, a cosmic baby compared to our 4.6-billion-year-old solar system. Its planets are still hot from their chaotic birth.
Scientists now have stronger evidence for core accretion over disk instability, settling a long-standing debate on how gas giants take shape.
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Webb’s NIRCam provided the most detailed atmospheric data ever for these exoplanets, setting the stage for future studies on planet formation.
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By comparing HR 8799 to our own system, scientists hope to understand how rare or common our solar system truly is in the universe.
Credit : NASA
More Webb observations will determine if this formation process is widespread, helping astronomers classify other exoplanets and even brown dwarfs.
Credit : NASA