Overview

• NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope used NIRCam to directly image 14 Herculis c, located 60 light-years from Earth and among the coldest exoplanets ever captured.
• The planet’s mass is about seven times that of Jupiter and it travels in a highly elliptical orbit roughly 1.4 billion miles from its Sun-like host.
• Orbital planes of 14 Herculis c and its inner companion cross at a 40-degree angle, offering the first direct view of such chaotic planetary dynamics.
• Brightness measurements at 4.4 microns point to carbon disequilibrium chemistry, with higher levels of carbon dioxide and monoxide than expected at its temperature.
• Researchers plan follow-up spectroscopic observations to refine atmospheric models and explore the system’s violent early formation history.