NASA has announced that researchers have discovered a new Earth-like exoplanet using the James Webb Space Telescope, marking the telescope’s first discovery of an exoplanet. The telescope was launched in December 2021.
The newly discovered planet is called LHA 475 b, and NASA says it’s “almost exactly the same size as our own,” measuring to 99% of Earth’s diameter. Kevin Stevenson and Jacob Lustig-Yaeger of Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland made the discovery.
“There is no question that the planet is there. Webb’s pristine data validate it,” Lustig-Yaeger said.