A planet 5 times jupiter actually seen
3 May 2005
by Richard Conan-Davies
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Astrononomer using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (8.2 metres) in Chile and later confirmed with the Hubble Space Telescope, have established directly seeing a planet orbiting a star outside our solar system some 150 light years from Earth. Previous so-called exo planets have only been detected indirectly by wobbles in the cental star. Gael Chauvin, lead astronomer of the study at ESO explained that "Our new images show convincingly that this really is a planet, the first planet that has ever been imaged outside of our solar system. Benjamin Zuckerman from UCLA's NASA Astrobiology Centre, a member of the international team of astronomers, explained that "The two objects - the giant planet and the young brown dwarf - are moving together; we have observed them for a year, and the new images essentially confirm our 2004 finding", The astronomers hope to use these techniques to improve their abilities to detect even smaller planets and would eventually like to be able to spot an Earth like solar system around another stars |
 The planet is thought to be about 5 times as large as jupiter, although it could be a little smaller.
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Related Links
Original News release from ESO
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