NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has taken its first-ever direct image of a planet outside the solar system, the agency said on Thursday.

The exoplanet in Webb's image, called HIP 65426 b, is a gas giant, about six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter, according to NASA.

It is about 15 to 20 million years old, compared to the 4.5-billion-year-old Earth, according to NASA.

The planet has been discovered in 2017 with images taken by a telescope of the European Southern Observatory while Webb's picture unveils new and more details.

The image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light from the James Webb Space Telescope. The purple image on the left shows the Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam)'s view at 3.00 micrometers,  blue shows the NIRCam instrument's view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) instrument's view at 11.4 micrometers, and red shows the MIRI instrument's view at 15.5 micrometers.

The images look different as the Webb's cameras capture light in different ways. The small white star in each image marks the location of the host star HIP 65426.

The image, as seen through four different light filters, shows how Webb's powerful infrared gaze can easily capture worlds beyond the solar system, pointing the way to future observations that will reveal more information than ever before about exoplanets, said NASA.

Webb is the world's largest, most powerful and most complex space science telescope ever built. It is an international program led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

(With input from Xinhua)