Thread: java application that calculates an exponential function

There is an error in my code that pops when I tried to execute my java application for an exponent function that I wrote. Here is my code and here is the error is generated when I run my code:

//a java application that calculates the power of an integer in a method that the user creates
//and uses a while loop to do so. User cannot use any Math class methods to perform this calculation
 
import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class exponentiation{
 
//main method begins execution of java application
 
public static void main(String[] args){
 
	int base; //declaration for base of exponent
	int power;//declaration for the power of the exponent
	int counter=1;//declares and initializes counter for while loop
	int exponent;//declares exponent function that will be used in the while loop
 
 Scanner input=new Scanner(System.in);
 
	System.out.println("Entered the base for exponent function:");
	base=input.nextInt();
 
	System.out.println("Entered the power for exponent function:");
	power=input.nextInt();
 
	System.out.printf("The value of the exponent function is %d", integerPower(base,power));
 
}//end main method
 
//begin method integerPower that calculates the exponent funtion
 
public static int integerPower(int base,int power){
 
	while(power>=counter){
 
 
		power=power+counter;
           exponent=base**power;
 
	}//end while loop
 
	return exponent;
 
}// end method integerPower
 
}//end class exponentiation

Here is the error that is generated:

C:\Users\.......\Desktop\chapter 6 java excercises\exponentiation.java:37: error: illegal start of expression
exponent=base**power;
^
1 error

Tool completed with exit code 1

Why is it an illegal start of an expression? I didn't think you needed to used if statements for a whileloop.