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First Four-Exoplanet System Imaged

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the space-is-really-big dept.

Phoghat writes "Among the first exoplanet systems imaged was HR 8799. In 2008, a team led by Christian Marois at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Canada took a picture of the system, directly imaging three giant planets."

6 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. I got in before the Slashdotting by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those who were not able to get in before the Slashdotting, here is a picture in text

    . .

                  O
                        o

        .

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    1. Re:I got in before the Slashdotting by biryokumaru · · Score: 5, Informative

      And here's a picture in jpg at an image hosting mirror.

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  2. A better link: Herzberg Institute directly by thomasdz · · Score: 4, Informative

    I hope this doesn't cause a slashdotting of the Herzberg Institute, but...
    http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/news/nrc/2010/12/08/exoplanet-marois.html

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  3. Re:Quite strange. by Kjella · · Score: 5, Informative

    Trust is not so important as being reproducible and verified by multiple methods. There's no explicit reason to distrust "doppler shifts, wobbles and loss of brightness due to osculation" but it's good science to say "Well, if what we're measuring is the result of a planet, we should be able to do X and see the planet directly. If we don't, there's something wrong. That it has been correct for near star systems give credibility to the other methods that they'll be correct for distant star systems. Sometimes you have to accept single-source results because it's the world's largest and most sensitive telescope or most powerful particle accelerator or things like that, but it's not ideal to leave it at that. Verifying results is a lot less glorious than making the discoveries in the first place, but it's an important part of science.

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  4. No. by Arker · · Score: 3, Informative

    The subject is system. System is singular, "system is" correct.

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  5. Re:Quite strange. by slick7 · · Score: 2, Informative

    When Galileo invented the telescope,

    More like re-invented.
    Ecclesiastes 1:9

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