First confirmed picture of a planet outside our solar system

[Guest Ken_Salter]

NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE[link:www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050401_first_extrasolarplanet_pic.html]News Source

[Joe L 62]

Wow, and NASA reported finding water on Mars - complete with a picture . . .http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.htmlJoe Lorenc

[Deaf Pilot 1]

Thats pretty neat Ken... that thing looks so close to the star it's probably a ball of molten rock. What do I know, though lol.

[Guest]

Given the size of the thing it'll be a large gas giant. A rocky planet that size cannot form because it'll collapse in on itself because of gravitational and tidal forces.

[Guest Skedflyer]

That is Very exciting that they have actually picture..... The only other way they could detect planets was from the wobble in the stars orbit?

[Guest]

Correct. And that requires a planet quite a bit bigger than this one, the smallest found so far through gravitational distortion measurement was 5-10 times the size of Jupiter, this one is supposed to be not much larger than the red planet.

[michal 44]

>larger than the red>planet.The name "Red Planet" is usually reserved for Mars. ;-)Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2