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New Exoplanet
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NASA's James Webb infrared space telescope has confirmed its first exoplanet, i.e. a planet outside of our solar system.

LHS 475 b is an Earth sized terrestrial planet, several hundred degrees hotter than Earth orbiting closer to its star than any planet in our system.

Completing its orbit around LHS 475 in just 2 days compared to Mercury's 88.

It may have an atmosphere.

Further observations will be made.

All of this is broadly fascinating but also perhaps imminently relevant for at least one game nearing release - Bethesda's Starfield.

Our new exoplanet is in close proximity to Earth - 41 light years away - and Starfield is set in the vicinity.

Earth - post apocalyptic and we're guessing also uninhabited - and Mars have been confirmed.

So LHS 475 b and other exoplanets which the James Webb might profile in the coming years could theoretically feature in the game.

Bethesda haven't revealed full details about their planet generation technology but we know that it's a mix of procedural generation and manual modelling.

If their procedural generation is anything like known generators, they and possibly also player modders should be able to enter parameters like those which the James Webb can supply.

To produce an approximation of that exoplanet which players could land and walk around on rather than just looking at graphs and artist impression pictures.

Presently there are over five thousand confirmed exoplanets and only one thousand planets in the game so those one thousand might all be real, known planets.

We also know that their game engine is built to accommodate flexibility.

Some players might prefer internal continuity over latest data realism - a planet remaining as it was the first time they visited it in the game rather being updated as new data becomes available or the addition of newly discovered planets.

Confine that new data to an optional over-ride file - which is what mods essentially are - and everyone could be happy. At least about this.

To reiterate - this isn't a confirmed feature. Rather something which could be possible based on what we know.

Starfield is presently scheduled to release in the first half of this year on PC and Xbox X|S.

[ Main Image: Artist impression of LHS 475 b and its star. Credit: NASA. ]

References

NASA (January 12, 2023).NASA’s Webb Confirms Its First Exoplanet.