BrandonL
09-10-2004, 11:38 AM
A group of European-led astronomers has made a photograph of what appears to be a planet orbiting another star. If so, it would be the first confirmed picture of a world beyond our solar system.
"Although it is surely much bigger than a terrestrial-size object [like Earth], it is a strange feeling that it may indeed be the first planetary system beyond our own ever imaged," said Christophe Dumas, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory.
SPACE.com revealed a similar imaging effort of another planet candidate in May by a U.S.-led team that used the Hubble Space Telescope. That possible planet has not been confirmed and could be a dim star in the background of the picture. Otherwise, all of the more than 120 known extrasolar planets have been detected indirectly, by noting the shadow of a planet crossing in front of a star or a planet's gravitational effect on a star.
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2004/TECH/space/09/10/exoplanet.image/story.pic.planet.jpg
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/09/10/exoplanet.image/index.html
"Although it is surely much bigger than a terrestrial-size object [like Earth], it is a strange feeling that it may indeed be the first planetary system beyond our own ever imaged," said Christophe Dumas, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory.
SPACE.com revealed a similar imaging effort of another planet candidate in May by a U.S.-led team that used the Hubble Space Telescope. That possible planet has not been confirmed and could be a dim star in the background of the picture. Otherwise, all of the more than 120 known extrasolar planets have been detected indirectly, by noting the shadow of a planet crossing in front of a star or a planet's gravitational effect on a star.
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2004/TECH/space/09/10/exoplanet.image/story.pic.planet.jpg
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/09/10/exoplanet.image/index.html