WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2008
First Pics Of Extra-Solar Planets Captured
Astronomers Capture Fuzzy Images Of Alien Planets; Also, Mars Rover Back Online, First Moon Images Restored
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In this image released by NASA, a dust ring, seen in red, surround the star Fomalhaut, that resides at the center of the image, and not visible to the human eye in this image. (AP Photo/NASA)
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The pictures show four likely planets that appear as specks of white, nearly indecipherable except to the most eagle-eyed experts. All are trillions of miles away - three of them orbiting the same star, and the fourth circling a different star.
None of the four giant gaseous planets are remotely habitable or remotely like Earth. But they raise the possibility of others more hospitable.
It is only a matter of time before "we get a dot that's blue and Earthlike," said astronomer Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. He led one of the two teams of photographers.
"It is a step on that road to understand if there are other planets like Earth and potentially life out there," he said.
Macintosh's team used two ground-based telescopes, while the second team relied on photos from the 18-year-old Hubble Space Telescope to gather images of the exoplanets - planets that don't circle our sun. The research from both teams was published in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science.
In the past 13 years, scientists have discovered more than 300 planets outside our solar system, but they have done so indirectly, by measuring changes in gravity, speed or light around stars.
NASA's space sciences chief Ed Weiler said the actual photos are important. He compared it to a hunt for elusive elephants: "For years we've been hearing the elephants, finding the tracks, seeing the trees knocked down by them, but we've never been able to snap a picture. Now we have a picture."
In a news conference Thursday, Weiler said this fulfills the last of the major goals that NASA had for the Hubble telescope before it launched in 1990: "This is an 18½-year dream come true."
There are disputes about whether these are the first exoplanet photos. Others have made earlier claims, but those pictures haven't been confirmed as planets or universally accepted yet. The photos released Thursday are being published in a scientifically prominent journal, but that still has not convinced all the experts. Alan Boss, an exoplanet expert at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Harvard exoplanet hunter Lisa Kaltenegger both said more study is needed to confirm these photos are proven planets and not just brown dwarf stars.
MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager, at the NASA news conference, said earlier planetary claims "are in a gray area." But these discoveries, "everybody would agree is a planet," said Seager, who was not part of either planet-finding team.
The Hubble team this spring compared a 2006 photo to one of the same body taken by Hubble in 2004. The scientists used that to show that the object orbited a star and was part of a massive red dust ring which is usually associated with planets - making it less likely to be a dwarf star.
Macintosh's team used ground-based telescopes to spot three other planets orbiting a different star. That makes it less likely they are a pack of brown dwarf stars.
The planet discovered by Hubble is one of the smallest exoplanets found yet. It's somewhere between the size of Neptune and three times bigger than Jupiter. And it may have a Saturn-like ring.
It circles the star Fomalhaut, pronounced FUM-al-HUT, which is Arabic for "mouth of the fish." It is in the constellation Piscis Austrinus and is relatively close by - a mere 148 trillion miles away, practically a next-door neighbor by galactic standards. The planet's temperature is around 260 degrees, but that is cool by comparison to other exoplanets.
The planet is only about 200 million years old, a baby compared to the more than 4 billion-year-old planets in our solar system. That's important to astronomers because they can study what Earth and planets in our solar system may have been like in their infancy, said Paul Kalas at the University of California, Berkeley. Kalas led the team using Hubble to discover Fomalhaut's planet.
One big reason the picture looks fuzzy is that the star Fomalhaut is 100 million times brighter than its planet.
The team led by Macintosh at Lawrence Livermore found its planets a little earlier, spotting the first one in 2007, but taking extra time to confirm the trio of planets circling a star in the Pegasus constellation. The star is about 767 trillion miles away, but visible with binoculars. It's called HR 8799, and the three planets orbiting it are seven to 10 times larger than Jupiter, Macintosh said.
"I've been doing this for eight years and after eight years we get three at once," he said.
In Related News:
Engineers shouted "she's talking," at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif. They were afraid that a dust storm had drained Spirit's solar batteries, triggering it to shut down. Spirit's batteries are low, but working. Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, are living long past their planned three months on Mars.
NASA and some private space business leaders spent a quarter million dollars rescuing the historic photos from early NASA lunar robotic probes and restoring them in an abandoned fast food restaurant.
The first refurbished image was released Thursday a classic of the moon with Earth rising in the background.
"This is an incredible image," said private space entrepreneur Dennis Wingo, who spearheaded the project. "In terms of raw resolution, there has been no mission that has flown since or even today that is as good."
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Add a Comment See all 22 Comments
- Are they sure that''s not just a squashed bug on the telescope camera lense?
- Reply to this comment
- Posted by guatom at 10:20 AM : Nov 14, 2008
Listen to your inner young guy...he''s much closer to innocence and hence mych more worthy of your consideration.
If it wasn''t for our painstaking efforts to examine the cosmos all your TV''s would be lifeless dark boxes (which may be a blessing actually) and computers would be the thing of fiction writers. - Reply to this comment
- Why must some people assume that any alien life must be water and carbon-based? There''''s absolutely no logic or science to support that notion.
Posted by incog-nito at 12:47 AM : Nov 14, 2008
Really?
From where I can see, the only logic supported by science concerning the propagation of life has water as a necessity. That is not to say that there is no other way for life to flourish...though a non-carbon based life form is difficult to fathom given the myriad of ways carbon can be bound to other elements due to its forgiving and convenient orbital energies, though as far as looking to science and from that developing some logic...Earth is a model system and it makes sense to look for life out there under conditions similar to those under which we have found life here.
your grasping for the fulfillment of your sci-fi fantasies...not using logic. - Reply to this comment
- We''''ll never be able to get there or send a message!
Posted by rbullock440
How do you know? We still have so much to learn, as a species. - Reply to this comment
- So what if we find life on another planet? It would be no suprise! Considering the universe''s vastness, for anyone to think otherwise is surely living in the DARK AGES! Some frivilous space exploration seems a massive waste of the time & money. We''ll never be able to get there or send a message!
- Reply to this comment
- My old guy cynical side says "they sure spend a lot of money on something that will really never impact my life more than a B action flick and yet I''m paying 10% of my SS to the gov for back taxes on while they are giving wealthy guys billions to fix their mistakes". My inner young guy says, "Wow, that''s cool". My eternal Christian guy says, "Some day, perhaps quite soon (old guy kicking up)I will know even as I have been known. Isn''t life dynamic!
- Reply to this comment
- Notice the red color. There is no planet there. This image was created by Satan so man would lose faith in God.
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Huh?
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Posted by daffy64
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Look in the middle of the circle. Its Satan!
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It doesn''t look anyting like Rush Limbaugh. What are you talking about? - Reply to this comment
- Look in the middle of the circle. Its Satan!
Posted by gop_will_Win
Look at the middle finger. It means your number one!
BTW ... How is that campaign going? - Reply to this comment
- Notice the red color. There is no planet there. This image was created by Satan so man would lose faith in God.
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Huh?
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Posted by daffy64
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Look in the middle of the circle. Its Satan! - Reply to this comment
- Notice the red color. There is no planet there. This image was created by Satan so man would lose faith in God.
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Huh? - Reply to this comment
- Notice the red color. There is no planet there. This image was created by Satan so man would lose faith in God.
- Reply to this comment
- Are you sure they aren''t just looking at a screen saver?
- Reply to this comment
- Cool picture!
- Reply to this comment
- Why must some people assume that any alien life must be water and carbon-based? There''''s absolutely no logic or science to support that notion.
Posted by incog-nito at 12:47 AM : Nov 14, 2008
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First of all, a true scientist would not make that assumption, so I assume that the ''some people'' you are referring to are not scientists.
While there has been some speculation among scientists that a silicon based life form could exist under some conditions, up to this point, none have been found.
It is only natural that upon hearing a stampede of hoof beats, one first looks for horses, even though it may be zebras. - Reply to this comment
- "Why must some people assume that any alien life must be water and carbon-based? There''''s absolutely no logic or science to support that notion."
Posted by incog-nito at 12:47 AM : Nov 14, 2008
The thing is, would we even be able to recognize noncarbon-based life as such?
Posted by rf35 at 04:24 AM : Nov 14, 2008
And if we were able to recognize some sort of chlorine based life form A: How would we talk to it? & B: What would we talk to it about? - Reply to this comment
- Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, are living long past their planned three months on Mars. "
Hmm, and yet Detroit cant seem to build a freaking CAR that runs right or doesnt rust thru. go figure
Posted by newster1 at 12:07 AM : Nov 14, 2008
Well, I have to agree with you in spirit, but then again, those Rovers cost about $200,000,000 apiece. How much would you be willing to spend on a car of similar quality?? :) - Reply to this comment
- Next time they send a rover to Mars they might consider including a brush attachment for the robotic arm, so clean off the solar panels.
- Reply to this comment
- "Why must some people assume that any alien life must be water and carbon-based? There''s absolutely no logic or science to support that notion."
Posted by incog-nito at 12:47 AM : Nov 14, 2008
The thing is, would we even be able to recognize noncarbon-based life as such? - Reply to this comment
- If NASA were to come out with a line of cars, I''d consider buying one.
- Reply to this comment
- Ummm yes, its basic organic chemistry. Everything living contains Carbon and Hydrogen. Usually one Carbon and 3 molecules of Hydrogen. That combination can combine to anything really. It can make anything from a sugar to an acid.
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