Scientists take first "extrasolar" planet photos
Two teams of astronomers made stunning claims Thursday that they have separately obtained images of planets orbiting two different starts in our galaxy. If confirmed, these would be the first direct images of “extrasolar” planets.
One team, led by Christian Marois, an astronomer with the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, Canada, said it has found a scaled-up version of our solar system, with three giant planets orbiting a star called HR 8799.
“I would have been happy with one planet, but finding three is absolutely amazing” Marois said.
The other discovery appears to be a planet orbiting the bright relatively nearby star called Fomalhaut, Paul Kakas. An astronomer at the University of California at Berkeley, said the object clearly moved between 2004 and 2006 in a manner that suggests it is orbiting the star.
The discoveries, published Thursday in the online journal Science Express, mark a major step forward in the search foe planets outside the solar system.
