Optical images of planets outside solar systems
Jayesh Limaye, Nov 17, 2008 1430 hrs IST
Astronomers have for the first time, used direct imaging techniques to capture pictures of a planet orbiting a star outside the solar system.
Astronomers have for the first time, used direct imaging techniques to capture pictures of a planet orbiting a star outside the solar system. Until now, direct imaging techniques were not used; techniques such as radio imaging were used instead or their existence was gauged by observing tiny wobbles in the star's position.
Dr. Paul Kalas at the University of California, Berkeley, said "It's a profound and overwhelming experience to lay eyes on a planet never before seen. I nearly had a heart attack at the end of May when I confirmed that Fomalhaut b orbits its parent star."
He also said that the planet is big enough to make Saturn's rings look 'pocket-sized'. "Fomalhaut b may actually show us what Jupiter and Saturn resembled when the solar system was about a hundred million years old. Fomalhaut b sits in a frigid location, but it's not too different from that of Neptune in our solar system," he added.
It is estimated that this planet is of the size of Jupiter and orbits the star once every 872 years at a distance of about 11 billion miles from Fomalhaut, which is in the constellation Piscis Austrinus.
It is 200 million years old and will die in a billion years. In comparison, the Sun is 4.5 billion years old and should last for another 5 billion years, but the shorter life of Fomalhaut is attributed to the fact that it burns about 16 times brighter than the Sun.
Its existence has been known since 2005 as its gravity has shaped the inner edge of the dust belt around the star, but it was only in May this year, that researchers noticed it in pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 2004 and 2006. Researchers will add more photographs when repairs of the HST's cameras are completed.
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