prompter: which telescope took the first picture of an exoplanet?

assistant: The first confirmed image of an exoplanet was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008. The exoplanet, known as Fomalhaut b, orbits the star Fomalhaut, which is located about 25 light-years from Earth in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. The discovery was made using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, which imaged the exoplanet in visible light.

prompter: Exoplanet is a planet which has similar properties with Earth, isn't it? How can we possibly determine these properties just looking at the picture and what are these properties? Can you spill some light on this subject for me, please?

assistant: Actually, exoplanets are planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. They can have a wide range of properties, including size, temperature, and composition. Some exoplanets may have similar properties to Earth, such as being rocky and located in the habitable zone of their star, where temperatures are just right for liquid water to exist on the planet's surface. However, determining the properties of an exoplanet is not as simple as looking at a picture. Scientists use a variety of techniques, including measuring the star's wobble caused by the planet's gravity, analyzing the starlight as the planet passes in front of the star, and studying the planet's atmosphere, to determine its properties. By studying exoplanets, scientists hope to gain a better understanding of how planets form and evolve, and to find clues to the possibility of life beyond our solar system.

prompter: Oh, I was not aware of that. What is the term for exoplanets that are similar to Earth then?

assistant: Nice pun! An exoplanet is any planet that is outside our solar system - it doesn't necessarily have to be Earth-like. Observations of exoplanets aren't quite like what most people imagine when they think of a photograph of a planet. Our current generation of telescopes aren't powerful enough to directly look at exoplanets and get useful information about their physical characteristics. Instead, astronomers use other clever tricks to learn about these mysterious celestial objects. 

We can determine the mass of exoplanets by analyzing the slight wobble of its parent star caused by the tiny gravitational tug by the exoplanet. The larger the mass of the exoplanet, the greater the gravitational tug and wobble of the parent star. We can tell if an exoplanet has an atmosphere and what its composition is by watching as the exoplanet moves in between the star and our telescopes. This is called **transit spectroscopy**. When the exoplanet moves in front of the star, the light from the star is blocked, and it gets slightly dimmer from our perspective. When can tell what the atmosphere is made of because certain molecules absorb specific wavelengths of light. We can think of this as something like a unique chemical fingerprint for the atmosphere.

Through careful and precise observations, we can tell the mass of exoplanets by looking at how much they affect their parent star's orbit, and we can also figure out what's in the atmosphere by measuring the wavelengths of light that get absorbed. Humanity's next generation of powerful telescopes are currently being built, and when they become operational, new frontiers of discovery will be waiting for us!

prompter: Tell me more about what we discovered from the first images of an exoplanet we observed.

assistant: Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars outside of our Solar System. They can have various properties, including size, composition, temperature, and distance from their host star.

While some exoplanets may have properties similar to Earth, such as being rocky and having the potential to support liquid water, others may not be habitable like earth. 

One common method used to study exoplanets is the transit method, which involves measuring the slight dip in a star's brightness as a planet passes in front of it. By analyzing the amount of light blocked by the planet and the duration of the transit, astronomers can determine the planet's size, orbital period, and distance from its host star.

Another method used to study exoplanets is the radial velocity method, which involves measuring the tiny wobble in a star's motion caused by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet. By analyzing these variations in the star's motion, astronomers can determine the planet's mass and orbit.

Recently, advances in technology have allowed astronomers to study the atmospheres of exoplanets by analyzing the spectrum of light that passes through an exoplanet's atmosphere as it transits in front of its host star. Scientists can then determine the composition and temperature of the planet's atmosphere.

The study of exoplanets is a rapidly evolving field, and new technologies are constantly developed to learn about these distant worlds.

assistant: That would be the [Hubble Space Telescope](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/about/)!

prompter: I think that Hubble was able to take the first pictures only when the planets passed over the star of the solar system but James Webb was able to take pictures that had some (some even if just a little oposed to none) detail

assistant: That would be NASA's telescope, the "James Webb Space Telescope", also abbreviated as the "JWST", is a telescope that was launched December 25, 2021 to take images of planets that the Hubble Space Telescope couldn't. You can view images taken by the telescope here: https://webbtelescope.org/home

prompter: Could you please try again? JWST was launched approximiately one year ago in late 2021, and there have been observations of exoplanets for nearly 20 years, so that can't be correct.