1st directly imaged exoplanet

[docm]

First one directly imaged, and it's around a sun-like star. Problems are it's 8x the size ofr Jupiter and far outside the habitable zone. Imaged by the Gemini Observatory

http://www.onorbit.com/node/2334

Full TIFF....

NOT an artists concept

 

[3488]

Thanks docm,

I remember the argument about this when this image was first released, whether or not it was a planet or another background star.

It is a real thrill to now know for sure that this is indeed a 2,544 Earth mass / 8 Jupiter mass Jovian world.

It is not surpising that the planet is so hot approx 1,00 Celsius, being so young & massive, it will still be contracting & radiating a great deal of internal heat, almost like a Brown Dwarf, as our own Jupiter would have been in it's youth, only 5 million years old, despite the great distance from it's parent Sun.

Wonder if this giant planet has a whole family of moons or whether there are any young Earths closer in to the star???

Andrew Brown.

 

[tpeezy]

for being soooooooo far away from the star it looks remarkably close to it in the pictures. I wonder how close earth would look to our sun if it were able to be seen from so far away.

 

[nimbus]

That apparent star size is probably the star's intensity overpowering the optics' and sensors' imperfections.