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...
More like this
(Based on actual events.)
Younger offspring (age 4.5): (singing softly to self while arranging a line of nine grapes on breakfast plate) Nine planets, fine planets, in our solar system. Nine planets, fine planets, go ahead and list 'em ... *
Kepler has discovered 11 new "solar systems" with 26 confirmed planets among them. They:
It seems the IAU ruling on what counts as a planet has stirred a little controversy in the Free-Ride home.
Dr. Free-Ride: (to younger offspring) Could you teach me all the words to your song about the planets.
Younger offspring: It's secret.
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?
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.