Topic: Hubble Takes First Visible Light Image of Extrasolar Planet

[sam]

nuts... there goes my career - I'm trying todo a similar thing at radio wavelengths...

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/13/hubble-take-first-visible-light-image-of-extrasolar-planet/

Persistence has paid off for astronomer Paul Kalas. After eight years and taking repeated photographs with the Hubble Space Telescope of a nearby star, he finally has what he and many astronomers have been striving for: the first visible-light snapshot of a planet outside our solar system. This coincides with the announcement of the first time astronomers have taken pictures of another multi-planet solar system, using the Gemini and Keck Telescopes. Kalas has been studying the star Fomalhaut, located about 25 light years from Earth, for several years. He knew the planet was there, because its perturbations were evident in the ring of gas and dust surrounding the star. The planet is probably close to the mass of Jupiter, and it orbits Fomalhaut at a distance about four times that between Neptune and the sun. Formally known as Fomalhaut b, the planet could have a ring system about the dimension of Jupiter's early rings, before the dust and debris coalesced into the four Galilean moons. Learn more in the video below…

[Simon]

Hire an assassin!   

[Clive]

   That's bad news Sam.  I saw the pictures on TV this morning.

[sam]

oh well, at least I discovered a stellar pulsar yesterday... so I can't moan too much! 

[Camstop]

oh well, at least I discovered a stellar pulsar yesterday... so I can't moan too much! 

Is that what you call it! 

[Clive]

oh well, at least I discovered a stellar pulsar yesterday... so I can't moan too much! 

Not too many of those around! 

[sam]

indeed, a nice addition to the thesis really... I'm hoping to have it submitted before the year is out... I'm also hoping to have written another 3 papers (so 5 in total from 3.5 years work isn't too bad!)

[Clive]

Nice to see we are getting good value for money Sam.