Giant exoplanet emerges from the dark when the James Webb Space Telescope turns out the starlight

Sometimes science can seem really counter-intuitive. For example, occasionally in astronomy, you can see more with less light. Case in point: the emergence of a giant planet in observations made by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), when astronomers found a way to block out light from the planet's parent star.

The extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, in question is 51 Eridani b (51 ERI b), a gas giant with the same mass as around 11 Jupiters that orbits a star located around 97 light-years away. 51 ERI b was discovered back in 2015 by ground-based telescopes, but the planet was missing from observations of the system made by the JWST. That wasn't a failing of the JWST itself; no one is doubting the observing capabilities of the most powerful telescope humanity has ever hoisted into orbit around Earth. Instead, it was a result of starlight from the star 51 ERI A obscuring this intimidatingly massive world.

The brightest planets are 100,000 times fainter than their host stars, meaning s...