THE STAR, PLANET, SEARCH & THE SHADE

I am have been watching a few World Science Festival talk shows regarding the search for Earth like exoplanets, finding out about the chemical composition of their atmospheres, how to detect if life is there as well as imaging said planets.

Of course this involves the aforementioned James Web Space Telescope, JWST, along with a follow up telescope that involves the start shade I mentioned in a previous post.

I pictured doing something very similar in my head, about targeting a start with a powerful telescope and blocking out the light so that any planets reflecting the stars light would show up optically.

I am confused how they did not think if this earlier but was likely down to having the technology. I imagine that one or more scientists had the same idea I did but had to wait until the technology was both possible in theory, then available and finally cheap enough?

An very interesting and in depth talk ...