Not just ANY planets, but planets outside of our solar system. Planets in another solar system! Observed by the Hubble Space Telescope, the other using other methods.
Visible and infrared images have been snapped of a planet orbiting a star 25 light-years away.The planet is believed to be the coolest, lowest-mass object ever seen outside our own solar neighbourhood.
In a separate study, an exoplanetary system, comprising three planets, has been directly imaged, circling a star in the constellation Pegasus.
And they said it could never be done...
Physical Science
Comments
It was a matter of time, really. I thought that recently there had been an announcement of an image of an extrasolar planet taken in the infrared? But visible light--that's something of a grail. What's the technical difference between finding an exoplanet in the infrared and in visible wavelengths?
Posted by: Bing McGhandi | November 13, 2008 8:47 PM
For one thing, Bing, you can see through dust clouds in the infrared, and considering the amount of dust floating around, that's a big advantage.
Posted by: JanieBelle | November 14, 2008 2:11 PM