Posted on 06/16/2025 6:34:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A distant star system that scientists described as abnormal, chaotic, and strange is finally coming into focus, thanks to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Using its powerful Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), Webb has captured a rare image of one of two known planets orbiting the star 14 Herculis, located about 60 light-years from Earth in the Milky Way.
The planet, known as 14 Herculis c, stands out for how incredibly cold it is. While astronomers have discovered nearly 6,000 exoplanets, only a small handful have been directly imaged, and most of those are extremely hot, with temperatures soaring into the hundreds or thousands of degrees. But Webb's data shows that 14 Herculis c, a massive planet about seven times the size of Jupiter, is chilling at just 26 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 3 degrees Celsius...
"The colder an exoplanet, the harder it is to image, so this is a totally new regime of study that Webb has unlocked with its extreme sensitivity in the infrared," said William Balmer, co-first author of the new paper and graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. "We are now able to add to the catalog of not just hot, young exoplanets imaged, but older exoplanets that are far colder than we've directly seen before Webb."
(Excerpt) Read more at scitechdaily.com ...
14 Herculis b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a G-type star. Its mass is 8.053 Jupiters, it takes 4.8 years to complete one orbit of its star, and is 2.774 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2002. [Nice interactive graphic here]NASA
Thanks for the link.
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark ·
· post new topic · subscribe ·Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·
So this means nothing to humans
Named EXWIFE
No, that’s just Hillary Clinton.
I wanna go there and build a whole bunch of SUV’s and melt everything lol
Planet Nan.
I recall a scene in the movie “Star Wars II” (1980) that took place on a planet covered with ice. Ice planets are cold.
A down jacket and boots for sure.
Ever since I posted this I’ve been thinking about driving the couple of miles for a jamocha shake.
:^) OTOH, this planet’s only a bit more than 8 times the size of Jupiter...
Twisted, cold — yeah, checks out.
Bill Hader’s tonton impression immediately comes to mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfiP915CfiM
Is it colder than Uranus?
WE had a waterbed and her side was always frozen.
Pure speculation. In the grand scheme of life, worthless knowledge.
Beat me to it. Thinking of my EX too.
Nope. 26 F?
Pffft! A walk in the park.
Hoth. The ice planet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
