Photo of First Extra-Solar Planet?

Anonymous Coward writes "According to NASA 'A major discovery from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope about a planet outside our Solar System will be announced in a Space Science Update on 27 November. The discovery marks an important new capability in efforts to uncover secrets about these newly discovered extrasolar planets.' Given the names of the individuals listed as speakers at this event, plus previous press releases and published papers, it is likely that the topic of discussion will focus upon planet(s) circling the sunlike star HD 209458."

Comments

Re:Photo of First Extra-Solar Planet?

[Karma 50]

the Cassini space craft was able to prove that Earth has life

Didn't we know that the Earth had life already? I could've sworn I saw a squirrel the other day.

media ploy

[asterisk_man]

is it just me or does anyone else feel that the photo on the page linked to in the story which seems to show a planet in front of a star is a bit deceptive. the first thing i thought when i saw it was that it was the 'photo of first extra solar planet' in question. obviously that isnt the case but it would be nice if that were made a little clearer. although now that i think about it this is probably chrisd's fault since the actual link doesnt seem to imply the exsistance of a photo. how silly of me to believe a /. headline (o:

Preposterous Idea

[hooded1]

This headline and the linked photo are so completely absurd. Current telescopes still lack the power to resolve a star into anything more than a single point, let alone to a full size sphere which is capable of being eclipsed by a planet. Nowhere does the article mention anything about a photo. The picture in it is merely used to illustrate the concept of a planet.