tecoyah

This is the first step into a really cool future of exporation.....it is gonna get interesting from here on out.

SAN DIEGO -- Astronomers are highly confident that they've taken the first photograph of a planet outside our solar system.

Make that two photographs.

A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms with a high degree of confidence a picture made previously by astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and reported by SPACE.com in September.

The planet -- still just a candidate, actually -- is an odd duck in many respects. It does not orbit a normal star, and it is much more massive than the largest planets in our solar system.

Still, if confirmed, it represents a landmark in astronomy along the road to the ultimate goal of finding and photographing Earth-like planets around other stars.

The Hubble image was released here today at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

The planet candidate appears to orbit a failed star known as a brown dwarf. The initial observations at ESO's Very Large Telescope could not determine whether the apparent planet was actually at the same distance as the brown dwarf or if it was a background object. The Hubble observations show that the two indeed appear to be travelling together through the sky, suggesting they are gravitationally bound, as originally suspected.

University of Arizona astronomer Glenn Schneider, who led the new study, said he's 99.1 percent sure the object is in orbit around the brown dwarf. He expects to be 99.9 percent sure in April when more Hubble observations are made as the planet presumably moves a bit farther along in its orbit.

"Stay tuned for the final confirmation, but it's looking pretty good," Schneider said.

The planet candidate is about 1.5 times the diameter of Jupiter and about five times as massive. It orbits the brown dwarf star at about 30 percent farther than Pluto is from our Sun. The brown dwarf does not have enough mass to trigger thermonuclear fusion and shine like a normal star, but it is also outside the realm of planethood, being some 25 times more massive than Jupiter and glowing with infrared light.

The setup is about 225 light-years away.

"This is the first image of a planet outside our solar system," said UCLA astronomer Eric Becklin, quickly correcting himself to say it was an image most likely to be of an extrasolar planet. "So we really need to be sure."

Becklin and others eagerly await the April observations.

If confirmed, the finding would have "enormous impact" on the ability of astronomers to get funding for future telescopes that would look for Earth-like planets, said Steve Maran, press officer of the American Astronomical Society.

And what to make of a planet orbiting a failed star? Astronomers are already debating what constitutes a planet and whether the definition should include how they formed versus what they orbit.

Becklin, who was not involved in the imaging, said there is evidence for planets orbiting planets and planets floating alone in space with no star. If the latest image is proved to be what it seems, that would suggest "planets are around a lot of things," he said.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...et_050110.html

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Coppertop

Sweet. I was kinda hoping to see a better photo, however. Soon, I would imagine.

appleseed

We are really entering into an interesting time when it comes to exploring space. I was just reading today that both of the Mars Rovers are still operating over a year after landing when 90 days of operation was projected to be the best possible outcome.

I hope the Hubble continues to be funded and maintained. It looks like the Shuttle program may be back on soon so that would be helpful.

Thermopyle

Cool. More Space telescopes! Now!

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Schwan

Very exciting. Too bad you can't see more then a red blob. Oh well. I hope we'll get to see better pics soon (not in 20 years, that is).

Cadwiz

I think that is totally cool.

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raeanna74

This sort of thing makes me feel so small.

We are priviledged to live in a time when this is possible. No matter how depraived mankind can seem. Each generation still has their accomplishements to be proud of. My parents were proud of the moon landing. Look where we've come now. Imagine what could be accomplished by the time I'm a grandparent or great grandparent. I love discoveries like this. Sure peaks my curiosity and make my imagination fly.

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water_boy1999

This is awesome. I can't wait to see what the next 50 years has in store for galactic pictures and space exploration.

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ARTelevision

Thanks for the news tip and the exciting peek, tecoyah!

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Nefir

Very cool. The jump in scientific accomplishments throughout these past couple of centuries is staggering. Relative to the age of human civilization as a whole, it was but a flash... I can only imagine what heights we might reach in the near future.

Thanks for the article!

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greytone

How does this not make the major broadcast news?

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Cynthetiq

.......

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Konichiwaneko

I've always loved astronomy, and this is exciting news.

Part of me smiles severly because I've always loved the idea of Pioneering and the "Frontier". To have a phyisical and tangible frontier will do so much for us as the human race seeks to learn more, and unfortunately expand and do all sorts of nasties that we will bicker and fight about.

Bad part aside though, I love travel and seeing new places ^^

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ObieX

A better picture may take a while. Keep in mind the distance of this planet from the earth, the distance of this planet from it's star, and the fact that it's star doesn't release much light of any kind (other than infrared for the most part). It is rather huge, though. Also as I recall correctly there have been around 100 or so planets detected outside of our soloar system. I forget what method was used to discover them, but they've been found if not photographed.

ALSO as a side note, for those interested - The Huygens probe (from the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft that was sent to Saturn) will be landing on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14 of this year. (a couple days away). For those who don't know, Titan is the only moon in our solar system that has an atmosphere. And not only does it have an atmosphere, but this atmosphere is thicker than Earth's.

For those interested to find out more you can do it here:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ca...ain/index.html

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omega2K4

Neato. Wish there was a better image, but still pretty cool anyways.

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holymoly

That is really cool. I echo the sentiment of the earlier poster who said that we're fortunate to live in such times. It's amazing what can be accomplished, even when it looks like humanity isn't exactly doing so well. Our civilization is amazing, but really screwy at the same time. I guess that's life.

Unfortunately, this doesn't involve Madonna or Ashlee Simpson, so few people will probably give a damn. Which is pathetic, really.

MacGuyver

I hope we are doing shit Star Wars style before I die. This is one step closer.

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troit

How true... Just a grain of sand on the beach.

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Lockjaw

You mean a massive Galactic civil war?

killeena

Ahh, and just when you think everything in the world is crap.

Makes me glad to live in this day of age, very exciting times for astronomy.

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MacGuyver

Not so much galactic civil war, as much as being able to travel from planet to planet in an X-Wing, with "hyperspace" and lightspeed travel and all that. I've always wanted to be in Rogue Squadron.

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Lockjaw

I'd want to keep far far away from Rogue Squadron. I always had the sneaking feeling that Luke used the Force to kill off his squad mates.

Poor Dak...