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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: "Hidden" Planet Found in Old Hubble Image


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A new technique stripped away starlight in a 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image (inset) to reveal the earliest known picture of a planet orbiting the distant star HR 8799, astronomers announced in April 2009.

The gas giant planet, seen above in an artist's conception, is slightly larger than Jupiter. Scientists aren't sure whether the exoplanet has rings, but they know such features are common around similar planets in our solar system.

Illustration courtesy NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI); Hubble picture courtesy NASA, ESA, and D. Lafrenire (University of Toronto, Canada)