# @europeanspaceagency on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DLveckFtn1v
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/35582088-europeanspaceagency-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/06d2230f33.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-07-05T21:50:00.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** J.L.Lopez (@xandler80) — https://gondola.cc/xandler80

## Caption

A planet caught in the act? 🪐

Astronomers using esawebb may have spotted something extraordinary: a Saturn-mass planet, TWA 7b, orbiting a nearby young star. If confirmed, this could be Webb’s very first direct image of a planet and the lightest one ever captured using this method.

Swipe through to discover how Webb revealed this hidden world.

Using its mid-infrared instrument, scientists blocked out the glare of the star TWA 7 to search for faint signals nearby. Thanks to this clever technique, they detected a soft glow that matches what we’d expect from a young, cold planet.

The planet appears to sit inside a gap in a dusty disc surrounding the star, likely carved out by its gravitational pull. That glowing orange dot close to the centre? That’s the likely planet. A more distant orange speck is just a background star.

With around 100 times the mass of Earth and temperatures near 47°C, this possible planet offers a rare look at planetary systems taking shape.

These early findings mark a big moment for Webb’s exoplanet mission. It’s a glimpse into how planets form, evolve and shape the space around them.

📸  europeanspaceagency, NASA, canadianspaceagency, A.M. Lagrange, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); creativecommons BY 4.0

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 5,515
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- **Comments:** 34

## Credits

These are the roles credited on Gondola. Credits may be incomplete.
A brand, account owner, or featured person is not necessarily the creator.

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ESA - European Space Agency | @europeanspaceagency | https://gondola.cc/europeanspaceagency | Government Organization |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Producer |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Editor |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Social Media Manager |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Publisher |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Copywriter |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Community Manager |

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