A Planet Orbiting Another Star

by Techno News | 11/16/2008 10:13:00 AM in |


Above: Artist's concept of the star Fomalhaut and the Jupiter-type planet that the Hubble Space Telescope observed. The planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the 200-million-year-old star every 872 years. Credit: ESA, NASA, and L. Calcada (ESO for STScI)

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star. Estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter's mass, the planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish."

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