Astromers May Have First Direct Image Of Planet Outside Solar System (from ATSNN), page 1

It has been report on BBC new website has reported that Astromers in Chile may have taken the first direct picture of a planet orbiting another star.

BBC News story

Astronomers working in Chile think they may have taken the first direct image of a planet circling another star.

The star, called 2M1207, is 230 light-years away and is very much smaller and fainter than our own Sun.

The pictured companion is 100 times fainter still and tested the technical limits of the Yepun telescope.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

What is even more exciting is that according the the article they have detect water molecules on this new body. However it will apparent take about another year of study to confirm that this is a planet. It is about 5 jupiter masses and is orbiting at bout 55 AU (Neptune-pluto distance?) Its surface temperature is 1000C about 3 times hotter than Jupiter.

Hopefully it will prove to be truth and not like the several false alarms that have so far occurred.

Hopefully this will fuel the drive for the next generation of space based telescopes. I know that ESA had some plans for a cluster of 4 space based telescopes orbiting between the earth and the sun that would be able to mimic a telescope with a lenses size measured in km. This would be able to image earth sized planets around other stars!

Related News Links:
European Southern Observatory Press Release

[edit on 10-9-2004 by Popeye]