James Webb telescope captures direct images of Saturn-sized exoplanet

The image of the disc around the star TWA 7, with the exoplanet at CC#1. Photograph: Anne-Marie Lagrange et al

The James Webb space telescope has captured unprecedented direct images of a planet beyond our own solar system, in its first exoplanet discovery.

The observations reveal a planet, which has been called TWA 7b, carving its way through a disc of glowing dust and rocky debris in orbit around a star 110 light years from Earth.