Exoplanets Can't Hide From The JWST's 'Digital Twin'

Exoplanets are challenging to detect due to the bright glare of their host stars. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has coronagraphic capabilities to suppress starlight, but it still faces limitations due to mechanical, thermal, and optical instabilities. New research explains how astronomers developed a method to subtract more starlight from JWST observations, allowing for the imaging of exoplanets that are close to their stars. The method, called FLIP, is based on physics and machine learning, and it accounts for tiny imperfections in the telescope. It improves the detection of exoplanets that are too faint to be seen with standard techniques. The method was tested on 51 Eridani b, an exoplanet found with ground-based telescopes, and it successfully detected the planet using JWST's capabilities. The detection was made possible by FLIP's ability to remove starlight more effectively than previous methods. The new method increases the number of exoplanets that can be imaged and is a significant step towards imaging exo-Earths with future observatories.

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