Baby’s first exoplanet capture 🍼⁣ ⁣ NASAWebb captured its first image of a planet outside of our solar system—a preview of future observations that will reveal more about exoplanets.⁣ ⁣ While this is not the first direct image of an exoplanet taken from space, HIP 65426 b points the way forward for Webb’s exoplanet exploration.⁣ ⁣ These images show the exoplanet in different bands of infrared light, as seen from Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared instrument (MIRI). They look different because of the ways different instruments capture light. A set of masks within each instrument, called a coronagraph, blocks out the host star’s light so that the planet can be seen. The small white star in each image marks the location of the exoplanet’s host star, which has been subtracted using the coronagraphs and image processing. ⁣ ⁣ The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable. It's about six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter, and young ...