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[article]First actual (infra-red) sighting of planet outside Solar System

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06-04-2005 1:27pm

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mike65

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The first image of a planet orbiting a Sun-like star has been captured by German scientists.

Nearly 150 planets have been found beyond the solar system but all except one of these have been discovered indirectly, either by observing the dimming of a star as the planet passes in front of it or by the star's wobble caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet.

Imaging a planet directly is extremely hard because the glare of the star is many times brighter than light reflected by the planet. However, in the case of the star GQ Lupi, the planet is far from the star and is also young and warm, meaning it shows up quite brightly in infrared.

Full article here

Mike.

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