NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope may be able to detect evidence of artificial light on the nearby exoplanet Proxima b, astronomers predict. The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have an operating temperature of roughly 40 Kelvin. 'We find that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be able to detect LED type artificial lights making up 5 per cent of stellar power.' To come to the conclusion that it may be able to detect artificial light, Loeb and colleagues used the JWST Exposure Time Calculator. Phillips calculated that when the James Webb Space Telescope launches in October, it could feasibly detect ammonia around gas dwarf planets after just a few orbits.

Source: Daily Mail May 20, 2021 18:12 UTC