JWST reveals its first direct image discovery of an exoplanet

> Although there is a slight possibility that the newly detected infrared source might be a background galaxy

I understand the difficulty in what they are doing, but the scale of the error here is amusing. “We thing we took a picture of something, but it might have been billions of things much bigger but further away”

With time, orbital motion should distinguish the two possibilities.

Though at a 50 AU orbit around a smallish star, that might take a while.

That actually makes one wonder if it will move enough within the lifetime of JWST to actually detect that orbital motion.

That should be calculable.

Orbital mechanics, orbital period, and minimum determinable arc of JWST.

Though another thought is that doppler might also reveal velocity, if a spectrum could be obtained. Since the system is nearly perpendicular to the Solar System (we're viewing it face-on rather than from the side), those shifts will be small.