• James Webb Space Telescope captures its first images of exoplanet TWA 7b.
• The planet orbits a young star 110 light-years from Earth in the constellation Antlia.
• TWA 7b is the least massive exoplanet ever directly imaged, weighing 10 times less than previous records.
• The discovery utilized advanced techniques, including a coronagraph to mitigate star glare.
• This advancement enhances the search for smaller, Earth-like planets in the universe.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has achieved a historic milestone by directly imaging its first exoplanet, TWA 7b, which orbits a young star approximately 110 light-years away in the constellation Antlia. This discovery demonstrates the telescope's capability in exploring new worlds beyond our solar system, a significant step forward since its launch in 2021, according to Reuters and Channel News Asia.

Exoplanet TWA 7b is approximately the size of Saturn but is noted for being the least massive exoplanet ever captured via direct imaging—ten times less massive than the previous record holder. This underscores the extraordinary sensitivity of Webb's instruments, particularly the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) coupled with a coronagraph that blocks out the star's bright light, allowing for clearer observation of nearby celestial objects, say astronomers at Le Monde and Dawn.

The JWST's imaging capabilities enable it to observe exoplanets that are not easily detectable by conventional methods, such as observing their transit across the star's face. Anne-Marie Lagrange, the lead researcher from the Paris Observatory, emphasized, "Webb opens a new window... of exoplanets that had not been accessible to observations so far," which is essential for understanding the diversity of planetary systems, as reported by The Jakarta Post and CBS News.

TWA 7b is orbiting about 52 times further from its star than Earth is from the Sun, situating it within a debris disk formed from that star's gaseous remnants, which offers insights into planetary formation processes. The planet and its host star are approximately 6 million years old, a stark contrast to our Sun's age of 4.5 billion years, indicating that this planetary system is still relatively youthful, according to findings published in the journal Nature, as cited by Reuters, Channel News Asia, and Le Monde.