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The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) has taken the first ever image of a young, Sun-like star accompanied by two giant exoplanets. Images of systems with multiple exoplanets are extremely rare, and — until now — astronomers had never directly observed more than one planet orbiting a star similar to the Sun. The observations can help astronomers understand how planets formed and evolved around our own Sun.
Even though astronomers have indirectly detected thousands of planets in our galaxy, only a tiny fraction of these exoplanets have been directly imaged,” says co-author Matthew Kenworthy, Associate Professor at Leiden University, adding that “direct observations are important in the search for environments that can support life.” The direct imaging of two or more exoplanets around the same star is even more rare; only two such systems have been directly observed so far, both around stars markedly different from our Sun. The new ESO’s VLT image is the first direct image of more than one exoplanet around a Sun-like star. ESO’s VLT was also the first telescope to directly image an exoplanet, back in 2004, when it captured a speck of light around a brown dwarf, a type of ‘failed’ star.
originally posted by: Lucidparadox
Im about to boot up Elite Dangerous and try to head on over there... see if there is life...
originally posted by: muzzleflash
a reply to: dug88
Question:
If the star is to the left -
How are the planet's fully lit?
Shouldn't they be crescent like in our solar system?
I'm sorry but I think these pics may be faked.
Anyone wanna try to convince me to "believe" in them?
originally posted by: wildespace
originally posted by: muzzleflash
a reply to: dug88
Question:
If the star is to the left -
How are the planet's fully lit?
Shouldn't they be crescent like in our solar system?
I'm sorry but I think these pics may be faked.
Anyone wanna try to convince me to "believe" in them?
The image was taken in infrared light, and those planets are pretty hot. So it's like heat vision.
originally posted by: buddha
"300 light-years away"
no way do I belive this!
we can not see a planet 300 light-years away.
and the planets look as bright as the star??
are they made of mecury?
originally posted by: muzzleflash
originally posted by: wildespace
originally posted by: muzzleflash
a reply to: dug88
Question:
If the star is to the left -
How are the planet's fully lit?
Shouldn't they be crescent like in our solar system?
I'm sorry but I think these pics may be faked.
Anyone wanna try to convince me to "believe" in them?
The image was taken in infrared light, and those planets are pretty hot. So it's like heat vision.
Shouldn't one side be hotter than another tho? Earth has drastic temp changes from day to night and we are in a mild biome.
Anyways as with almost all astronomy imaging I'm pretty sure this is a composite image reconstructed.
So there are three important stages in extracting the direct image of a planet. First, a state-of-the-art adaptive optics system has been incorporated into the instrument to correct for the turbulent effects of the Earth’s atmosphere with the aim of delivering images as sharp as if the telescope were floating in space. Secondly, a coronagraph is used to block out the light from the star itself and increase the contrast still further. Finally, a technique called differential imaging is applied that exploits differences (the filters) between planetary and stellar light in terms of colour or polarisation. The light from the star is blocked out, leaving only the planet — although in practice the process is not as straightforward as this overview suggests!