Jean-Baptiste Ruffio

Using the Keck telescope and spectroscopy (light analysis that reveals rotation speed), astronomers measured 32 objects: from giant planets to brown dwarfs — bodies heavier than planets but lighter than stars that never ignited.

130 light-years away, four giant planets orbit the young star HR 8799—each 5 to 10 times more massive than Jupiter. They lie far from the star, at distances from 15 to 70 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the distance from Earth to the Sun).

Three and a half parsecs from the Sun, among the dim stars of the southern sky, hides a world that astronomers have been trying to see for thirty years. Epsilon Indi Ab is a gas giant, cold as a winter night: its temperature is about 275 kelvins, just above the freezing point of water.

Using James Webb, astronomers 'fished out' a third giant planet from the murky dust disk of the star β Pictoris. Two others were already known, but this one was hiding in the bright light, like a fish in muddy water.