The James Webb Space Telescope plans to explore strange, new rocky worlds in unprecedented detail.
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The work will be a big stretch for the new observatory, which should exit commissioning in a few weeks.
Rocky planets are more difficult to sight than gas giants in current telescope technology, due to the smaller planets' relative brightness next to a star, and their relatively tiny size.But Webb's powerful mirror and deep-space location should allow it to examine two planets slightly larger than Earth, known as "super-Earths."
Neither of these worlds is habitable as we know it, but investigating them could still be a proving ground for future in-depth studies of planets like our own.The two planets Webb officials highlighted include the super-hot, lava-covered 55 Cancri e, and LHS 3844 b, which lacks a substantial atmosphere.
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