Slashdot Mirror


Three New Exoplanets Seen In Direct Photographs

The Bad Astronomer writes "Planets orbiting other stars are usually found indirectly (by blocking their stars' light or inducing a Doppler shift in the light as they orbit, for example), but direct images of exoplanets are extremely rare. However, using the 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii, astronomers have taken photographs of three nearby exoplanets, all young, massive, and hot. One may be massive enough to count as a brown dwarf, but the other two are more likely in the planet-mass range. All three are very far from their stars, which means they may have formed differently than the planets in our solar system."

1 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Young massive and hot. by P-niiice · · Score: 4, Funny

    The OP was talking about planets, right?