Cool find in hunt for exoplanets (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Astronomers have published an image of the coolest planet outside our solar system that has been pictured directly.

The new find is more similar to our own Solar System than prior pictured exoplanets, in terms of the parent star's type and the planet's size.

However, the surface temperature is a scorching 280-370C, and could still prove to be a brown dwarf star.

The results, published in Astrophysical Journal, were obtained by a new camera on the Subaru telescope in Hawaii.

Among more than 400 known exoplanets, only 10 have been imaged directly, rather than detecting them via measurements of their parent stars' light or movement.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8393607.stm

http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.1127

[MineralMan]

1. It's Tatooine!

[damntexdem]

2. Have they found one without Republicans yet?

Just wondering. ;-)

[Posteritatis]

3. Woo, lead can exist in solid form! In the winter! (nt)

[eppur_se_muova]

4. You won't be so happy when that first hailstone hits! nt

[Phoonzang]

5. I hope I live to see an image of an actual, Earth-sized, inhabitable world.

Or an inhabited one. That would be even better.