According to JWST weekly schedules (found here), the Trappist-1 system was among the telescope's targets during early July.
The only JWST image of an exoplanet in the Trappist-1 system that I've managed to find was posted by a redditor (as explained by an article here). This is a processed image and the poster failed to provide a link to the original data.
So is there any JWST image released by NASA of the Trappist-1 system or any of its planets? If not, why is it taking NASA too long?
The Trappist-1 system consists of an ultracool red dwarf at a distance of 12.5 pc from the Sun, surrounded by a system of planets with orbital semi-major axes ranging from 0.01 to 0.06 au.
As seen from the Earth, the separation between central star and the exoplanets would be 0.001 to 0.006 arcseconds.
The imaging resolution of the JWST at best is about 0.06 arcsec in the near-infrared (2 micrometres) so there is no way that the star and the (much fainter) exoplanets can be resolved separately in any image taken of Trappist-1 by JWST.
Looking at the JWST schedule, I see that Trappist-1 is being observed using NIRISS Single-Object Slitless Spectroscopy. i.e. This is spectroscopy, not imaging. Any image$^\dagger$, will actually be a smeared out "rainbow" in the near-infrared part of the spectrum. The aim will presumably be to look for faint traces of the exoplanets in the stellar spectrum as they move in front of, and behind, the star.
$\dagger$ Actually, I see that the spectrally dispersed image is accompanied by a snapshot undispersed image to confirm the positioning of the target in the field of view. Nevertheless, the point about not being able to resolve the star and exoplanets separately remains.
The JWST data for Trappist-1 can be found by going to the MAST archive and searching for "Trappist-1" and checking the JWST filter.
As ProfRob mentioned, a literal image is not being obtained. The system is being measured spectroscopically, so the output (…after calibration, formatting, etc.) will be some sort of chart- a ‘squiggly line,’ perhaps a scatterplot. Impressionable laymen -and the media outlets that pander to such reactionaries- don’t ‘get’ squiggly lines or scatterplots. So popsci.com, Mashable, etc. won’t echo it.
This has spilled over back to university and FFRDC public affairs staff; if it won’t benefit the university/research group via positive press, what incentive do they have to push it?
The conspiracy nuts have incentive, of course- Argument from Silence is by definition an argument, and the nutz will hunt for any argument that makes sense (to them), externally (or internally) consistent or not.
As the comment mentions, the [MAST archive has data][1], A lot of it is still restricted (which means that the primary researchers still have "dibs" on the data) Some datasets are available - but interpreting them is well above my pay grade
You can find some spectra and download data in fits format. What isn't available (probably because the data is still being interpreted) is any analysis of what the data means.
