Overview

• TWA7b is a Saturn-mass exoplanet orbiting the 6.4 million-year-old star TWA7 at about 52 astronomical units and lies 111 light-years from Earth.
• Announced on June 25, 2025, the discovery marks JWST’s first new exoplanet detected through direct imaging rather than transit or radial velocity methods.
• Astronomers used a coronagraph on JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument to mask the star’s glare and capture the faint infrared signature of a planet ten times less massive than any previously imaged.
• The planet occupies a gap between three concentric rings of dust and debris, providing direct evidence that young worlds carve structures in their protoplanetary disks.
• This achievement demonstrates JWST’s ability to image smaller, colder exoplanets and indicates that even lighter worlds could be captured in future observations.