First Photo Taken of Object Around Sun-Like Star, Scientists Say

Astronomers say they have taken the first direct image of a planet-like object orbiting a star much like our own sun. A similar breakthrough was announced last year, when astronomers unveiled direct images of a single-planet and multiple-planet system. However, the host stars of such systems are stellar giants that are much more massive than the sun. The images of this newly identified object were taken in May and August during early test runs of a new planet-hunting instrument on the Hawaii-based Subaru Telescope. The object called GJ 758 B orbits a parent star that is comparable in mass and temperature to our own sun, said study team member Michael McElwain of Princeton University. The star lies 300 trillion miles (480 trillion km), or about 50 light-years, from Earth.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e9f6fe9065ed.jpg[/atsimg]
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Photo: Space.com


[edit on 3-12-2009 by alyosha1981]

reply to post by alyosha1981


Wow, thanks! Good find! And of course for every planetary system similar to ours that they find there's zillions more that they haven't found.

reply to post by MissSmartypants


The numbers don't lie, there are billions of galaxy's out there and one has to have a life bearing planet like ours...or was that 1 with a whole bunch of 0's behind it?

Originally posted by alyosha1981
The numbers don't lie, there are billions of galaxy's out there and one has to have a life bearing planet like ours...or was that 1 with a whole bunch of 0's behind it?

It all depends whether there are more zeroes on the number of planets out there than there are the odds that a lot of chemicals will fall together and form something with a consciousness that wants to reproduce. If not, then we might be all alone... completely alone....

Oh, well. We can barely get along with each other. It won't be any easier getting along with intelligent shrimp creatures from another planet.

reply to post by 2000 Yards


Well since we can't be certain, I'll entertain the hope of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe because I don't believe (we) were a chance combination of chemicals and time.

I've seen this photo and it's cool, but I'm confused, I'm sure this is in fact the 10th directly imaged exoplanet. I'm not sure where space.com gets its information. Heres a couple old ones.

reply to post by ZombieOctopus

A similar breakthrough was announced last year, when astronomers unveiled direct images of a single-planet and multiple-planet system. However, the host stars of such systems are stellar giants that are much more massive than the sun.

This is important because the star in the article is similer to ours in size.