September 15, 2008—An image released today of a distant star and its potential planetary companion could go down in history as the first picture of a planet outside our solar system orbiting a sunlike star.
The possible planet—a hot, young body (upper left) about eight times more massive than Jupiter—sits roughly 330 times as far from its host star as Earth is from the sun. The pair lies about 500 light-years from Earth.
The researchers note that they aren't sure whether the body is really a planet or some other type of planetlike object, and it remains to be seen if it is truly orbiting the star.
