INBOX ASTRONOMY
First Completed Rocky Worlds Program Observations Open New Era in Exoplanet Studies
Release date: Thursday, July 9, 2026 10:00:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Learnings pave way for future, more challenging targets
Ever since the first planets beyond our solar system were discovered, astronomers have hoped to study rocky worlds similar in size to Earth. But detecting and characterizing these planets and their atmospheres has proven extraordinarily difficult. Rocky planets are relatively small, their signals are faint, and possible atmospheres can easily be obscured by fluctuations in the stars they orbit. The Rocky Worlds Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) program was created to confront those challenges directly, using the combined powers of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescopes, to build a clearer picture of how rocky planets behave across the galaxy. The team’s first completed observations are laying the foundation for the program and for the broader astronomical community’s study of exoplanets.
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