system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How do we know what exoplanets look like?

If the planets are hundreds and thousands of light-years away, how do we know what they look like and their characteristics? Also because of how long it takes for the light to reach us, is there a possibility that we are looking at a planet that may not exist in present time?
gpt
By in large we don't know what they look like, just an incomplete combination of the orbit, mass, and radius. For a limited number of planets, we have some idea of the atmospheric composition and/or cloud cover. Are you thinking of artist's representations?