First fuzzy photos of planets outside solar system

Article

Cool!

4 planets, 3 orbiting one star, the fourth orbiting another.


Mm, controversy :

There are disputes about whether these are the first exoplanet photos. Others have made earlier claims, but those pictures haven't been confirmed as planets or universally accepted yet. The photos released Thursday are being published in a scientifically prominent journal, but that still hasn't convinced all the experts. Alan Boss, an exoplanet expert at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Harvard exoplanet hunter Lisa Kaltenegger both said more study is needed to confirm these photos are proven planets and not just brown dwarf stars.

reply to post by Soloist


Sweet, one of the stars involved is good ol' Fomalhaut. I spent a lot of time aligning my telescope using that star just this past weekend.

[edit on 13-11-2008 by ngchunter]

reply to post by ngchunter



Do you take pictures with yours?

What scope do you use?

Originally posted by ngchunter
reply to post by Soloist

 

Sweet, one of the stars involved is good ol' Fomalhaut. I spent a lot of time aligning my telescope using that star just this past weekend.

[edit on 13-11-2008 by ngchunter]

I was just looking at it 2 weeks ago with binoculars because it was changing into rapid shifts of color. We kept an eye on it for an hour or so. When I saw the news on this, I was like.....weird...

creepy that pic looks like a giant eye.

Originally posted by Soloist
reply to post by ngchunter

 

Do you take pictures with yours?

What scope do you use?

I do, I use an 8" LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain. I was having to align on Fomalhaut through a tree so I was cursing the fact that my scope's computer chose that star (owing to certain constraints in the alignment method i was using). Considering today's news I'm now grateful that I had the chance to take a look at it so recently. I didn't take a picture of Fomalhaut that night, but here is the picture I took thanks to fomalhaut's help:

Still needs some work, namely more exposures; the weather only cooperated for half an hour after alignment was done.

[edit on 13-11-2008 by ngchunter]

reply to post by ngchunter


Wow, that's a pretty freakin' awesome picture!

Thanks for posting that, I look forward to more!