First Pics Of Extra-Solar Planets Captured
Earth seems to have its first fuzzy photos of alien planets outside our
solar system, images captured by two teams of astronomers.
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.
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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)
