Spitzer Telescope Discovers Planets Via Infrared

DirtyJ writes "Astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope have for the first time discovered two extrasoloar planets by directly detecting light from the planets themselves. Usually planets are discovered by indirectly inferring their presence from the wobble of star they orbit, but Spitzer has been able to directly detect these objects at Infrared wavelengths. Nifty conceptual images and videos are available."

Comments

The thrill of discovery

[Webmoth]

In an age when scientists attempt to prove what they already believe, it's nice to know that there are still some who practice science for the sake of discovery:

"We're back to square one," said Dr. Sara Seager, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, co-author of the Deming paper. "For us theorists, that's fun."

Ah, if we could all enter into an investigation with a blank slate free of preconceived notions, there's no telling what we'll find.

Re:Soon enough we will find habitable planets...

[heauxmeaux]

We should really try getting to Mars first. Maybe even back to the moon. Priority-one should be offloading a shitload of earthlings as fast as we can before this dump suffocates itself. Mars seems like a good candidate.

Re:Typo

[NetFu]

Go ahead and mod me down, but how can it be "Insightful" to point out "extrasolar" is misspelled, but someone pointing out that the word "asterisk" is misspelled is a Troll?

I suppose I'll be modded "Redundant" for pointing out what everyone else does -- that Slashdot moderation is ridiculously meaningless...