First Picture of Likely Planet around Sun-like Star - Great Breakthrough in Astronomy

[fwhong]

"Astronomers have unveiled what is likely the first picture of a planet around a normal star similar to the Sun. "

Read More at .. http://www.gemini.edu/sunstarplanet (http://homeboyastronomy.com/2008/09/18/first-picture-of-likely-planet-a-great-breakthrough-in-astronomy/)

Oh wow, this is definitely interesting!

Probably the first photograph of an Earth-like planet got released a couple of days ago. The first time that scientists have managed to get a photograph of an exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star.

“This is the first time we have directly seen a planetary mass object in a likely orbit around a star like our Sun,” said David Lafrenière, lead author of a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters and also posted online. “If we confirm that this object is indeed gravitationally tied to the star, it will be a major step forward.”

Check it out! :thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

Some things in the report are puzzling. The star is supposed to be sunlike, so presumably much the same temperature as the sun. It goes on to say that the planet is 330 AU from the star, which puts it about 10 times as far as Pluto is from the sun. So how can its temperature be 1500 deg C?

[ngcles]

Hi fwhong, Geoff & All,

This discovery was raised in this forum under the astronomy, science section about a week ago.

There is some short discussion here:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=35942

that might resolve some of your questions.

Best,

Les D

[fwhong]

Les D,

Thanks for pointing that out. My apologies for the duplicate post.

I was excited about the news!

The other thread is informative as well.

Cheerz,