First Images of Planets Outside our Solar System

reply to post by ian990003100


I don't get everyone's disappointment, but then again I'm used to being wowed by "faint fuzzies" in the eyepiece, just a blur of a distant galaxy takes my breath away. The most exciting astronomy isn't done with grandiose pictures that satisfy the stereotypical aesthetic of a "beautiful space image." Think of what that dot of light represents, an entirely new world 25 light years away! Sure it's just another gas giant, but the amazing thing is that we can see it at all, and in fact, until now man has been unable to directly view planets in other solar systems. Even though it's a dot, the meaning behind it is incredible. I'm similarly blown away by amateur images of quasars, billions of light years away. They're just dots too, but what they represent is light from a distant galaxy that's been traveling in space for about the same length of time as our entire solar system's life, only to be caught by the small telescope of an amateur. To amateur astronomers, even a dot can be breathtaking.

[edit on 14-11-2008 by ngchunter]

I don’t want to admire these discoveries to much because I’m disappointed that Ill never see them in person in my life time.

Fair enough. Maybe it's a result of overexposure to the science-fiction culture, or something, I don't know. But I agree that you're basically getting a slice and wishing you had the whole pie. Maybe try coming at it from a different angle.

Astronomy isn't about traveling to the stars -- it never was. It's about observation, learning, expanding our perception and our knowledge. Astronomers can tell you what a pulsar looks like, and I'm not just talking about a Hubble photograph. Astronauts can't. Rockets are for engineers, chemists, physicists and the like. Granted, I'm sure plenty of astronomers would just be dying to hitch a ride on the next shuttle launch, but that's not the focus of their field. What astronauts do today was made possible hundreds of years ago by astronomers. That doesn't mean you have to laugh at Galileo and say, "Pshh, big deal, so you're looking at the moon through a telescope. It's not like you can GO there."

Why feel disappointed at what the future holds, just because it's in the future? You could probably go to Mars in your lifetime if you played your cards right. And suppose you COULD go to a distant star system. Why stop there? At that point you could complain that there aren't any Earth-like planets. And if you found a system with an Earth-like planet you could complain that there aren't any aliens. And if you found some aliens you could complain that you can't go to a different galaxy, or go outside the Universe, or go backwards in time.

Personally, I still think this news is freakin' awesome. Here's why:
Ever since the notion of alien worlds existed within the human imagination, if somebody said, "Alien worlds, huh? Show me." ... all we could do was talk about it, or paint a picture, or watch a sci-fi movie.

Now, for the first time ever, we can point at these photos, and say, "There."

Originally posted by Kr0n0s
reply to post by retzius

 

Not the first image of a planet but still an interesting breakthrough for astronomers.
Heres an image that I posted here a while back that is also the "first" image of a exoplanet that orbits a sun like ours.

Though over 300 extrasolar planets have been found using other techniques, this picture likely represents the first direct image of a planet belonging to a star similar to the Sun.

Credit: Apod

Huge difference here. The pictured you posted is an infrared image. The Hubble image is visible light. The hubble image is the first visible light image of an extrasolar planet.