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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Photo: First Pictures of Alien Planet System Revealed


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Shown in infrared (left), three planets (marked b, c, and d) orbit the star HR 8799 in the first ever image of a multiplanet system. In a visible-light photo, the planets would be invisible, due to the glare from their host star.

In a sort of double exposure (right), newly discovered planet Fomalhaut b is shown moving along its orbit (marked with blue lines) in 2004 and 2006. Fomalhaut b is the first planet to have been captured in a visible-light image. Both discoveries were announced in November 2008.

Images courtesy National Research Council Canada and (right) Paul Kalas, University of California, Berkeley