James Webb telescope discovers its first exoplanet

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first exoplanet. The existence of the exoplanet “LHS 475” was previously indicated, and now it has been confirmed for the first time using the telescope, according to the US space agency NASA.

“LHS 475” is almost exactly the same diameter as our Earth and is about 41 light-years away. It is still unclear whether the exoplanet has an atmosphere similar to that of our Earth.

For a long time, astronomers only knew about the planets orbiting our sun. The first exoplanets – celestial bodies that usually orbit a star outside our solar system – were not confirmed until the early 1990s. NASA experts assume that there are hundreds of billions of exoplanets in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Jointly built by the space agencies in Europe (ESA), the US (Nasa) and Canada (CSA), the “James Webb” telescope was launched into space in late 2021 aboard an Ariane launch vehicle from the European Spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana – after previous cost explosions and repeated postponements. In the summer of 2022, the first images from the telescope were released, providing the deepest and most detailed insights into space to date. (sda/dpa)