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New images taken of an object five times the mass of Jupiter confirm that it is a giant planet closely orbiting a distant star, an international team of astronomers reported.
The team of European and American astronomers said this is the first time a planet outside of our solar system has been directly observed -- a claim other scientists have also made.
The team first spotted the object last year as a faint reddish speck of light circling a dim brown dwarf -- or failed star -- 225 light-years away from Earth near the constellation Hydra. At the time, scientists guessed the faint light was a planet, but said further observation was needed.
The discovery touched off a debate over whether the object was actually a planet or a background star. Since the mid-1990s, scientists have discovered more than 130 of these so-called extrasolar planets by indirect means, but observing them directly has proved difficult.
Refined images taken earlier this year by the Very Large Telescope in northern Chile show two separate objects bound by gravity moving together according to Gael Chauvin, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory, who led the team.
Reference:
http://www.heraldextra.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=53979&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
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