Explained | The James Webb telescope’s confirmation of its first exoplanet

The story so far: After a spectacular first set of images last year, including those of the birthplaces and deathbeds of stars, and the cosmic waltz of galaxies, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful one ever launched into space, began its year by confirming an exoplanet. According to NASA, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been detected till date, and astronomers calculate that at least one exoplanet on average exists for every star visible in the night sky. So far, both ground and space telescopes, using different methods, have discovered exoplanets varying in size, mass, composition, the number of planets orbiting a star or the number of stars orbited by the planet.Compositions of these exoplanets have varied from rocky, gas-rich, or even planets the density of styrofoam orcovered in molten seas of lava. While there are five ways that have been used to discover exoplanets, NASA states two key techniques — Transit method: This involves noticing dips in the light curve from the parent star— when a planet passes or transits directly between an observer and the star it orbits, it blocks some of that starlight.