Astronomy Today@astronomytodayAstronomers have spotted the giant planet 51 Eridani b in James Webb Space Telescope data by filtering out its star's glare. Ground telescopes first detected it in 2015.
The gas giant is about 11 times Jupiter's mass and lies 97 light-years away. A digital twin of the telescope helped strip out leftover glare, and the method picked out faint planets two to 15 times better than standard techniques.
The Northwestern University team published the work in Nature on November 4, and the approach may help NASA's planned Habitable Worlds Observatory.
