Hidden planet found in James Webb images using new starlight-removal method
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Researchers have developed a technique called FLIP that uses a digital twin of Webb's NIRCam to subtract starlight from images. It revealed an exoplanet that was concealed in existing James Webb observations.
Astronomers have found a previously hidden planet beyond our solar system in existing images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). They did it with a new computational method described in a Nature paper published online on November 4.
Planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, are hard to see because their host stars shine so brightly. The new approach, called Physics-based Learning for Imaging Planets (FLIP), uses a virtual replica, or "digital twin," of Webb's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam). The team built a detailed physical model of the camera and used machine-learning optimization tools to adjust millions of variables until the simulation matched real observations. This produces a precise model of the star's glare, which can then be subtracted from the original images.
In tests on known planets, FLIP achieved two to 15 times greater detection sensitivity than conventional approaches, according to the article.
Lead author Rodrigo Ferrer-Chavez, a graduate student at Northwestern University, said small imperfections in the telescope are not a limiting factor in the kinds of planets that can be imaged. Co-authors include Caltech's Katie Bouman and Northwestern's Jason Wang. An earlier attempt to train machine-learning models to predict starlight patterns did not work, which led the team to the physics-based approach.
The researchers say FLIP could be used to search Webb's archive for planets that were missed, and could work on other telescopes. They also see it helping future missions such as NASA's proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory. They plan to refine the method and test it with other instruments, including the Roman Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes.
