O. Absil

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.

460 light-years away, around the star HD 135344B, a dense disk of gas and dust is swirling. It looks like a giant vinyl record that someone has cracked: a gap yawns in the disk, and across it, like a slender bridge, stretches a dust filament.

Photographing an exoplanet orbiting another star is like trying to spot a firefly in front of a spotlight. Earth's atmosphere is constantly churning, which makes stars appear as dancing speckles through a telescope.