Webb Technique Reveals Hidden Exoplanet 51 Eridani b
A new technique called FLIP, which models the Webb telescope's tiny movements, has revealed the exoplanet 51 Eridani b in data where standard processing had failed to show it.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is wobbly, and scientists have found a fix that could reveal new alien worlds hidden in its data. The hidden exoplanet 51 Eridani b was recovered by a new method called Physics-Based Learning for Imaging Planets, or FLIP, described in a Nature study published on 4 November 2026. Researchers at Northwestern University, led by graduate researcher Rodrigo Ferrer-Chavez, built a detailed physical model of how the telescope and its mirrors work, simulating how it takes in starlight, including its tiny instabilities. By modelling those movements, the software can remove far more of a star’s glare than standard methods, making faint planets easier to see.
Today, Webb can detect worlds roughly the size of Saturn orbiting their stars farther out than Pluto orbits our Sun, but planets closer to their stars remain hidden in glare. The team tested FLIP on Webb observations of three star systems and found the method was two to 15 times more sensitive than standard techniques. In one of those systems, the software captured the giant planet 51 Eridani b, a world about 97 light-years from Earth that was not previously visible at the wavelengths Webb can detect. The planet itself was already known from earlier observations, but FLIP produced the first image of it at 4.3 microns, a wavelength where standard processing had failed.
How the hidden exoplanet 51 Eridani b was found
The result does not represent the discovery of an entirely new planet, but a significant improvement in the ability to identify previously hidden planetary signals in astronomical data. Researchers remove most of a star’s glare using a mask inside the telescope called a coronagraph, and FLIP removes much of the remaining light. The team says the same approach could help the future Habitable Worlds Observatory, Webb’s successor, and could reveal other planets already sitting in archival Webb data. For astronomers, it is a reminder that new software can be as powerful as a new telescope, unlocking science that was already recorded.
Source: Scientific American
