The James Webb S
pace Telescope plans to explore strange, new rocky worlds in unprecedented detail.
Rocky planets are more
difficult to sight 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 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.
55 Cancri e
orbits its parent star at a tight 1.5 million miles (2.4 million km)