N. Whiteford

When an exoplanet briefly eclipses its star, starlight passes through its air and absorbs its chemical taste. This technique, the transit method, is the core of how the James Webb telescope works.

A giant planet hangs in space in complete solitude, separated from its star by a distance 160 times greater than the path from the Sun to Pluto. The light from its parent star arrives so faintly that the surface temperature barely exceeds 200 degrees Celsius — about as warm as a well-heated sauna.