Friday, November 14, 2008

Extra-Solar Planets

American Thinker is reporting that 2 instances of extra solar planets have been successfully imaged, and the pics are here, and here.

The good news is that we're getting actual images of planets. Before this, we got hints of the existence by observing the wobbling of the star as the planetary body orbited it. The problem with that is that it takes a really big planet to cause a star to wobble.

The picture of Fromalhaut is interesting as it seems to be surrounded by a huge asteroid belt, larger than our own solar system. The planet has an orbital period of 872 years as opposed to a sprightly 248 years for Pluto. You'll need push bumpers on your space ship to visit.

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