Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a strange disk of gas and dust around an infant star that could challenge current models of planet formation.
JWST placed new limits on planets around Epsilon Eridani and demonstrated an improved technique for spotting faint signals.
In science, a negative finding can be just as valuable as a positive one. Even the most advanced observatories are sometimes challenged by data artifacts, and this was the case with the James Webb Space Telescope’s recent study of Epsilon Eridani.
This nearby star has long been at the center of debate over whether it hosts planets. While JWST’s NIRCam detected intriguing signals, they were positioned too close to instrumental noise to be confirmed as a true “planet.”
These observations were part of a JWST program dedicated to targeted astronomical investigations and focused on the search for two possible planets around Epsilon Eridani, located just 10.5 light years away and only about 400 million years old. The first candidate, proposed in 2000 using radial velocity measurements, was estimated to be about the size of Jupiter and orbiting 3.5 AU from the star. The second, still unconfirmed, has been suggested as the body responsible for shaping the star’s striking ring system and would be situated roughly 45 AU from its host star.
When searching for the first candidate planet, Epsilon Eridani b, NIRCam detected a “blob” of light in exactly the position where a planet was predicted. However, the signal appeared close to a “hexpeckle,” an artifact created by the coronagraph that introduced significant noise in that region. Because of this interference, the researchers could not confirm the detection with statistical confidence, even though the feature resembled a planetary signal.
