Science: Hubble Directly Observes a Planet Orbiting Another Star

Probably many blogs on the planet earth will note that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star; but hey, it is exciting! According to the NASA press release, the planet is stimated to be no more than three times Jupiter's mass. The planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish."

Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting ever since an excess of dust was discovered around the star in the early 1980s by NASA's Infrared Astronomy Satellite, IRAS. Click here for press release, videos, animations, etc.