Exoplanets finally come into view

[glenc (Glen)]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7725584.stm
"The first pictures of planets outside our solar system have been taken, two groups report in the journal Science.
Visible and infrared images have been snapped of a planet orbiting a star 25 light-years away.
The planet is believed to be the coolest, lowest-mass object ever seen outside our own solar neighbourhood...

Paul Kalas of the University of California led an international group that used the Hubble Space Telescope to image the region around a star called Fomalhaut.The star has a massive ring of dust surrounding it that appears to have a cleanly groomed inner edge...

Christian Marois of the Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics and his team used the Keck and Gemini telescopes in Hawaii to look near a star called HR 8799, which is just visible to the naked eye.The team looked for light in the infrared part of the spectrum, hoping to spot planets that were still hot from their formation. What they found in 2004, and confirmed again this year, are three planets circling the star..."

[gary]

Hi Glen,

Thanks for the post which was appreciated.

Absolutely incredible!!!

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Mt. Kuring-Gai NSW

[xelasnave]

Visual contact wow... we need to prepare.. we need battle stars..

This is major in my view I never thought it was possible now or ever.
Fantastic in my lifetime.

alex

[Jen]

this is cool

[AdrianF (Adrian)]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5...-an-exoplanet/

Adrian

[Ric]

When I was a kid I would read about speculation of planets orbiting other stars and now we can see them.

Pretty awesome stuff in my books.

[glenc (Glen)]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/...318928341.html
also
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ today

[Kevnool (Kev)]

This wont be the end of discoveries as there made every day.....cheers Kev.

[casstony]

"It's a profound and overwhelming experience to lay eyes on a planet never before seen"

I'm lost for words. It's like a kid looking at lollies through the shopfront window and never being able to touch them. Hopefully someone will find a doorway in the future.

[AlexN]

Tony, they have a doorway, its buried under a mountain in a US Airforce base... Its secretly known as the "Stargate"

On a serious note, it is indeed very interesting.... now - point hubble at it!

[glenc (Glen)]

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/34395079.html