PDA

View Full Version : extrasolar planet photo?


meteor
Sep11-04, 03:44 PM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3644410.stm
"Astronomers working in Chile think they may have taken the first direct image of a planet circling another star.
The star, called 2M1207, is 230 light-years away and is very much smaller and fainter than our own Sun."


I'm gazing at this little red dot and here seems so near, but is really so far away...
OK. Do you think that is really a planet?

Nereid
Sep11-04, 09:45 PM
Here's a more detailed PR, from ESO (http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-23-04.html).

There's quite a bit going for this one as a real planet ... but, as they say in the PR, it will take another year or two for any significantly different data to strengthen the case one way or the other - how does this object move (on the sky) wrt the apparent parent? If it's not a planet, it will very likely show clear relative motion in that time.