Giant 'super-Jupiter' discovered just 12 light-years from Earth

The James Webb Space Telescope discovered a planet with an unimaginable mass, exceeding Jupiter's mass by six times, at a distance of 12 light-years from Earth. This extraordinary planet is not only remarkable for its size but also for its brightness and low temperature.

A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, one of the leading research centres in astronomy, reports on this remarkable discovery. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), one of the most advanced observational tools, enabled the discovery of this extraordinary planet, which orbits a nearby star just 12 light-years away from us. This orange dwarf has a temperature slightly lower than that of our Sun.

Previous analyses and observations suggested that a giant planet might be orbiting this star, but until now, there was no direct observational evidence. The JWST provided such evidence by sending images of this planet. Based on these images, astronomers classified it as a super Jupiter.

The planet Epsilon Indi A is truly gigantic. Its mass exceeds Jupiter's sixfold, making it one of the most significant objects in our Solar System. Furthermore, it surprised scientists in many other ways. It is exceptionally bright yet cold—the temperature on its surface is approximately 2°C.

Epsilon Indi A orbits its parent star at about 2 billion kilometres, approximately 15 times the Earth's orbit around the Sun. One complete orbit of this planet around its star takes several decades.

Observations indicate that Epsilon Indi A is the only giant planet in the entire system of this star. The results of these observations were published in the prestigious journal "Nature."