First Direct Photo of an Extrasolar Planet

[MeDiCS]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/first-alien-planet-photographed-confirmed-100629.html

Quite remarkable .

 

[AirSimming]

Mhhh, I personally would like to see more than just two small light bulbs...

 

[Sar]

Agreed, but it's still remarkable and shows that we're moving into a direction where we can someday see more than two bright spots on black.

 

[RisingFury]

It's the first direct imaging in visible light, but not the first direct imaging ever. A few planets and protoplanets far from their stars have been discovered using IR imaging.


Direct imaging is still pretty useless. The star pretty much outshines the planets and they're lost in it's glare. It'll take some cool new techno tricks before we can start finding planets using this method.

 

[MeDiCS]

Direct imaging is still pretty useless.

As are high resolution textures. But we like them anyway .

 

[RisingFury]

You miss my point...

Direct imaging can be useful. Any planet that we can find using the Doppler shift method that doesn't cross in front of it's star leaves a measure of uncertainty when it comes to it's mass and the reason for that is that the angle of plane in which the planet orbits, relative to the star - earth line is unknown. If we can image the planet directly, it's possible to figure that angle out and get a much more accurate reading of it's mass.

The problem with this method is that almost always the planet gets lost in the glare of the star. Currently it only works if the planet you're imaging is so far away from it's star, that the glare disappears. Such arrangements are rare...

 

[N_Molson]

Well Galileo Galilei probably saw something like that when he looked to the galilean jovian moons. And today, we have hi-res pics from these moons thanks to the probes and the HST. Some even performed landing and in-situ analysis. There's a long road ahead, but I'm sure progress will follow the same course. Maybe in 3 or 4 centuries, it takes some patience

 

[Ark]

It is pretty incredible to be able to see a visible-light image of a planet around another star. Scientifically irrelevant? Maybe. But still incredible.

 

[supersonic]

Wow, that is really something.

 

[jinglesassy]

Which telescope was used?

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Cool - let's go there!

Astronomy Now: "First directly imaged planet confirmed".

 

[Hmuda]

I was just staring at that small dot for about half a minute. Wow.

As for it being useless, unneccessary, etc: way to alienate people from science. If all astronomers show them are numbers, graphs, and bland reports, they won't bother. If you show them the picture and tell them just how amazing it is that we were able to do it, then they might listen. Carl Sagan didn't become popular because he spent an hour on air explaining the math of general relativity and quantum theory.

 

[tblaxland]

Which telescope was used?

From the article:

The new observations that confirm the planet circles its parent star were made using high-resolution adaptive optics technology at the Gemini Observatory. The observatory is an international collaboration with two identical 8-meter telescopes, located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii and Cerro Pachon in northern Chile.

EDIT: Thread moved to "Astronomy & the Night Sky" forum.

 

[eveningsky339]

There's a long road ahead, but I'm sure progress will follow the same course. Maybe in 3 or 4 centuries, it takes some patience

Hm, can't say I plan on sticking around that long.

 

[squeaky024]

I was mostly surprised that this photo was taken from a telescope on the ground, not a space telescope. Adaptive optics are awesome.

 

[RisingFury]

There's a long road ahead, but I'm sure progress will follow the same course.

I'll place my money on 10-20 years time, with astrometry. GAIA seems to be a promising mission. It would be able to directly measure the wobble of stars with planets, instead of using Doppler shift. That way we can figure out the mass of planets regardless of the angle between our line of sight and planet's orbit.

 

[donatelo200]

Sweet this is somthing i've ben waiting for!

 

[SpaceMan965]

If you have and question's on the website just contact me and also How can you get a image of a extrasolar planet?

 

[RisingFury]

If you have and question's on the website

???

and also How can you get a image of a extrasolar planet?

You need a good telescope, you need to be smart and you need to be lucky.

 

[SpaceMan965]

I have a meade Infinity hoping to get a new one soon.

???

My website for space pictures www.todaysspacepictures.com.