If I was being generous here, I could agree that this is the first direct image of this specific exoplanet, TWA-7b 
But it’s certainly not the first direct image of an exoplanet or even the first one imaged by JWST 
There’s something about the JWST x exoplanet combo that seems to generate endless misleading clickbait headlines, undermining the genuinely good science being done 
The original paper by Lagrange et al.:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09150-4
Hot pictures for a hot afternoon 
Most of the images in my book, "111 Places in Space That You Must Not Miss", came from space agencies & observatories, as well as talented archive image processors & amateur astronomers, most released with CC licences.
But I made quite a few too, also processing archival data, from my JWST observations, or from my back garden.
I've made them all available with CC BY-SA licences here:
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCbdAn
The northern summer solstice was at 02:42 UTC this morning.
As usual, the Sun did not care much 
Timelapse movie of the Sun in the extreme UV (171Å) taken by AIA on the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory, rendered by JHelioviewer.
Just time for lunch today at the mothership, & good to see a couple of my former Science Directorate colleagues 
“So, hands up who thinks Mark’s new book is groovy?” 
Thank you very much to ESA Director General, Josef Aschbacher, for his enthusiastic endorsement of “111 Places in Space You Must Not Miss” at the Paris Air Show today, publication day 
(Truth be told, he was actually speaking after my talk & asking which of the kids in the audience would like to be an astronaut, but the picture taken by Karen O’Flaherty was too perfect not to use 
)
Gone but not forgotten
On behalf of XMM-Newton, Rosetta, Herschel, Planck, BepiColombo, JWST, & JUICE, thanks for the ride to space, #Ariane5 
As seen at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget today.
Just passing through Mannheim, to connect to the TGV direct to Paris 
Will be going out to Le Bourget tomorrow to give a talk at the Paris Air Show.
It’s supposed to cover the science highlights from the roughly fifty space science missions ESA has built and/or collaborated on over the Agency’s half century history 
All in twenty five minutes 
Just two days now until my book, "111 Places in Space You Must Not Miss" is published in Europe 
As you might have guessed, there are 111 mini-chapters, each comprising around 350 words of text & a full-page image describing somewhere interesting in space 
Here are all 111 of those images ... well, at least a central 20 pixel wide strip of each one
Europe: 19 Jun
UK: 21 Jul
US: 2 Sep
Available from all the usual places and:
https://emons-verlag.de/p/111-places-in-space-that-you-must-not-miss-7517
The International Space Science Institute in Bern is looking for a director. Can recommend as a really nice institute hosting good meetings in a beautiful city.
Millions of degrees hot off the press – first results from ESA's PROBA-3 mission, using two spacecraft separated by 150 metres to create artificial solar eclipses.
This makes it possible to trace the solar corona close to the surface of the Sun on a routine basis, not just during actual eclipses.
Congratulations to the PROBA-3 team
Image taken on 23 May 2025:
Inner yellow: PROBA-2 SWAP
Middle green: PROBA-3 ASPIICS
Outer red: SOHO LASCO C2
Apropos space missions studying the Sun's poles, here's a little something from 6 October 1990.
The deployment of the ESA/NASA Ulysses mission from space shuttle Discovery as part of STS-41.
The spacecraft is at top left of the IUS/PAM-S combo, which powered it towards Jupiter.
There it used a big gravity assist to get out of the ecliptic & orbit over the north & south poles of the Sun.
My slight reprocessing of this JPG scan of the film original: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/22587754
Currently doing battle with a truculent million year old baby protostar below the belt of Orion, moving behind clouds some eighty million au away 
As a brief distraction, here’s a several billion year old grown-up star just one au away, playing with the water and ice in the atmosphere of one of its planets
The #mainstream media doesn’t cover #SpaceExploration and #SpaceScience with the same questioning rigor that they reserve for #politics. People writing about space exploration are mostly #cheerleaders 
for the cause, rather than independent observers keeping a watchful eye 
on how our national monies 
are spent https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2022/06/23/new-book-paints-bleak-picture-of-nasas-human-spaceflight-program
In just under a fortnight, on 19 June, my book "111 Places in Space That You Must Not Miss", will be published by Emons in Germany, followed by the UK on 21 July & the US on 2 September 
It's a tour guide of interesting places in our Solar System, the Milky Way, & Deep Space beyond, & describes what you'd find & learn if you were able to visit them
Here's a preview of the cover & a few chapters – it's available to order in all the usual places
A nice cross-over this evening: I gave a talk about the technology & science of JWST to the 25th European Light Microscopy Initiative (ELMI) conference, held at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (@EMBLEvents) in Heidelberg 
Thanks to the very kind audience, to Timo Zimmerman & Aline Schnieder of EMBL for the invitation & organisation, & to the folks from Teledyne who made the JWST near-IR detectors that have taken most of my data
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Space Agency
I'm privileged & honoured to have spent 15 of the intervening years working in the Science and Human & Robotic Exploration Directorates.
There are many great experiences on many missions working with many amazing people to share
But 12 November 2014, the day that Rosetta deployed Philae to the surface of Comet 67P/C-G, will forever be my most cherished memory 
Time warp 
At the MPIA in Heidelberg @mpi_astro today, Nienke van der Marel describing the reference science case for protoplanetary disks with the METIS mid-infrared instrument being built for the 39-m diameter European Extremely Large Telescope
The diagram she’s using to illustrate the stages of star & planet formation was made 30 years ago
By me, when I was a staff member here at the MPIA 
More ideological vandalism across the ocean – the Tangerine Tyrant shutters NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York & sends everyone to work from home. For "efficiency" reasons
Seems like a prelude to eliminating GISS altogether, given the seminal work done by Hansen, Schmidt, & others on climate change science there, & the ignorant denialism the far-right specialise in as they profit from burning our planet.
Appalling.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/21/nasa-giss-lab-trump-shut-down-james-hansen
If you have clear skies & a way to observe the Sun safely, perhaps with eclipse glasses or by projecting through binoculars as I’ve done here, have a look: the huge sunspot group AR4079, is putting on a lovely show
A multi-spot group with dark umbral cores & a very large penumbra around them
The smaller AR4076 is visible too.
Pretty dusk skies over over the Peterstal this evening, making for a nice view of the crescent Moon, its 'dark side' illuminated by Earthshine, sunlight reflected off the Atlantic Ocean.
Above & to the right of the Moon is Elnath, Beta Tauri, & to the lower left is Jupiter, with its moon Callisto visible to its upper left. Io & Ganymede were visible closer to the planet in higher-resolution images.
Nikon D7000 + 85mm lens at f/2, 2 sec, ISO 100.
