Extrasolar planets? Don't speculate, see them
Seema Singh -
Friday, November 14, 2008 7:55 PM
More than 375 extrasolar planets have been detected so far but all through indirect methods, not by imaging. Using Keck and Gemini telescopes in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, a group of scientists from the US, UK and Canada have produced the first-ever (direct) image of three planets orbiting a star other than our own. The star, HR 8799, is a "main sequence star," in the prime of its life, fueled by nuclear reactions within its core, and it occurs 128 light years from Earth, researchers say in today's issue of Science. Pics courtesy Science
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Another team has directly detected a planet orbiting the star Fomalhaut, one of the brightest in the sky and just 25 light years from Earth. Paul Kalas of UC Berkeley and colleagues used the Hubble Space Telescope to image a planet they call Fomalhaut b, orbiting its star, within a large dust belt. The group estimates that the planet's mass is no greater than several times that of Jupiter. If their findings are confirmed, this object will be the coolest and lowest-mass body imaged outside of the solar system. Here's the first optical image of an extrasolar planet.
