Webb will take next leap in search for habitable worlds

Beginning next year, the James Webb Space Telescope will scan a sampling of the nearly 5,000 alien worlds discovered around other stars to help astronomers identify which of the rocky planets might have atmospheres that could sustain life. When scientists starting designing Webb in the 1990s, astronomers had detected only a handful of planets outside our solar system. Now, thanks largely to NASA’s retired Kepler planet-hunting observatory, there are more than 4,800 confirmed exoplanets in the catalog. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 24)