1. Illustration of Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone. NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle 2. Artist's impression of a scene on the surface of the planet

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When we read headlines like "The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its 1st exoplanet and snapped its picture," we expect images like the ones shown below 😀

Alas, they look more like the image above, a few pixels wide. Images like the ones below would require a much more powerful telescope, such as one located > 550 AU away and which uses the Sun as a gravitational lens 😎.

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/kepler/about-half-of-sun-like-stars-could-host-rocky-potentially-habitable-planets/
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/take-a-virtual-trip-to-a-strange-new-world-with-nasa/
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20180003479/downloads/20180003479.pdf
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1. Illustration of Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone. NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle 2. Artist's impression of a scene on the surface of the planet

Notices where this attachment appears