James Webb Telescope finds its first exoplanet

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was used for the first time to confirm the existence of a small and rocky exoplanet around a red dwarf star.

There's a new heavy hitter in the hunt for planets beyond our solar system.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope — the next-generation observatory that has already beamed back some of the clearest and most stunning views of the universe — was used for the first time to confirm the existence of an exoplanet, scientists announced Wednesday.

The planet, called LHS 475 b, is a small and rocky world that is almost the same size as Earth, according to the research team, led by astronomers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. The research was presented Wednesday at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.

The exoplanet confirmation marks an important milestone for the $10 billion Webb telescope, which launched into space in December 2021 and began science operations less than a year ago. The finding demonstrates how the observatory could be used to search for potentially habitable planets in the cosmos and examine the chemical makeup of their atmospheres.

“These first observational results from an Earth-size, rocky planet open the door to many future possibilities for studying rocky planet atmospheres with Webb,” Mark Clampin, director of the astrophysics division at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. “Webb is bringing us closer and closer to a new understanding of Earth-like worlds outside our solar system, and the mission is only just getting started.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/james-webb-telescope-finds-first-exoplanet-rcna65374

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