Eerste foto's van planeten rond andere sterren

Astronomen maakten met behulp van de Hubble Space Telescope de allereerste directe foto's van planeten buiten ons eigen zonnestelsel, “including a visible-light snapshot of a single-planet system and an infrared picture of a multiple-planet system.”

This 2006 Hubble Space Telescope optical image shows the belt of dust and debris (bright oval) surrounding the star Fomalhaut and the planet (inset) that orbits the star every 872 years and sculpts the inner edge of the belt. Credit: Paul Kalas/UC Berkeley; STScI.

The HR 8799 planetary system (shown as an artist’s conception) resembles a scaled-up version of the outer portion of the solar system, according to the researchers, who estimate the planets orbit their star at distances similar to those of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Credit: Gemini Observatory; Artwork by Lynette Cook.

A to-scale comparison of the HR 8799 system and our own.