Nancy Atkinson, Author at Universe Today

November 25, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

The Lifestyles of Famous, Fast-Living Stars

WR 25 and Tr16-244 Credits: NASA, ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)

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The Carina Nebula contains the famous blue star Eta Carinae, which has the highest luminosity of any star we know. And in the same nebula live two other life-in-the-fastlane stars, and the Hubble Space Telescope has provided this gorgeous, gorgeous image of them. Until recently these colossal stars — two of our galaxy’s most massive luminaries — have been shrouded in mystery, (avoiding the paparazzi, no doubt). But Hubble’s Wide Field Camera has done what only HST’s investigative reporting could unveil, revealing these stars greater detail than ever before. These stars are so bright and powerful that they burn through their hydrogen fuel source faster than other types of stars, leading to a ‘live fast, die young’ stellar lifestyle. And (gasp!) one of the stars has been hiding a secret companion, and (double gasp!) the other star is part of a three-some! Is that why this nebula is giving these stars “the finger?”

The two stars WR 25 and Tr16-244, located within the open cluster Trumpler 16, is embedded within an immense cauldron of gas and dust that lies approximately 7,500 light-years from Earth. They produce incredible amounts of heat, emitting most of their radiation in the ultraviolet and appearing blue in color.

WR 25 is the brightest, situated near the centre of the image. The neighboring Tr16-244 is the third brightest, just to the upper left of WR 25. The second brightest, to the left of WR 25, is a low-mass star located much closer to Earth than the Carina Nebula.

WR 25 is likely to be the most massive and interesting of the two. Its true nature was revealed two years ago when an international group of astronomers led by Roberto Gamen, then at the Universidad de La Serena in Chile, discovered that it is composed of at least two stars.

It’s not usual for massive stars to form in compact clusters, and often, the individual stars are physically so close to each other that it is very difficult to resolve them in telescopes as separate objects. And now, these Hubble observations have revealed that the Tr16-244 system is actually a triple star. (see image below).

WR 25 and Tr16-244 are the likely sources of radiation that is causing a giant gas globule within the Carina Nebula to slowly evaporate away into space, while possibly inducing the formation of new stars within it (see separate image). The radiation is also thought to be responsible for the globule’s interesting shape, prominently featured in earlier Hubble images, which looks like a hand with a ‘defiant’ finger pointing towards WR 25 and Tr16-244.

And if you can’t see it, here’s more detail of “the finger.”

Source: ESA

November 25, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Unusual Red Spiral Galaxies “Strangled”

Images of three galaxies from the Galaxy Zoo (top) and STAGES surveys (bottom) show examples of how the newly discovered population of red spiral galaxies on the outskirts of crowded regions in the Universe may be a missing link in our understanding of galaxy evolution.

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Usually a galaxy’s shape corresponds with its color as well as its age. Spiral galaxies appear blue because they are still dynamically forming hot young stars. Elliptical galaxies, on the other hand, are mostly old, dead, and red. But surprisingly, two international collaborations have both separately identified a population of unusual red spiral galaxies. Galaxy Zoo, which uses volunteers from the general public to classify galaxies and the Space Telescope Galaxy Evolution Survey (STAGES) project have found that many of the red galaxies in crowded regions of galaxy clusters are actually spiral galaxies, bucking the trend for red galaxies to be elliptical in shape. However, these galaxies might be in transition, going from young to old, slowly having the life ‘choked’ out of them. “We think what we’re seeing is galaxies that have been gently strangled, so to speak,” said Chris Lintott, Galaxy Zoo team leader from University of Oxford, “where somehow the gas supply for star formation has been cut off, but that they’ve been strangled so gently that the arms are still there.” Sounds like a CSI murder mystery, but in this case astronomers are studying the scene of the crime.

The STAGES team used the Hubble Space Telescope to look in detail at one particular very large cluster of galaxies, known as the A901/902 and found a surprisingly large number of red spiral galaxies. But they didn’t know if what they were seeing was unusual to only that cluster or even that particular region of space. However the Galaxy Zoo team had found red spirals all across the universe. “STAGES had more detailed observations,” said Linott, “but we showed this is something that happens across the population of galaxies. So it’s nice when you can attack it from both ends at once.”

The two teams have concluded that both the mass of a galaxy as well as its local environment are important in determining when and how quickly its star formation is shut down. The red spirals are found on the outskirts of clusters in crowded regions of space where galaxies cluster together. As a blue galaxy is drawn in by gravity from the rural regions to the suburbs, some sort of an interaction with its environment causes a slow-down in star formation. The closer in a galaxy is, the more it is affected.

Also, the red spirals were also the more massive galaxies, presumably because the smaller ones are transformed more quickly.

So what causes the transformation? The two teams don’t think it was any type of violent interaction.

“Usually, anything disruptive enough to get rid of the gas that fuels the star formation would have disrupted the spiral arms,” said Lintott. “But not so, at least particularly on the outskirts of clusters.” said Lintott.

The cause might be just the galaxy’s gentle interaction with the cluster. “The kind of thing we’re imagining,” explained Lintott, “as the galaxy moves into a denser environment, there’s lot of gas in clusters as well as galaxies, and it’s possible the gas from the galaxy just gets stripped off by the denser medium it’s plowing into.”

The teams have ruled out that a huge quantity of dust in these galaxies is masking a large amount of blue star formation. “Whenever you show a red object to an astronomer they immediately blame dust,” said Lintott, “because dust can absorb light and re-scatter it at a longer wavelength. So the temptation is to say they are just normal galaxies with just lots of dust. But there’s something else going on here, because then you’d expect the effect to be stronger if the spiral was face-on rather than edge- on because you’re looking at more of the galaxy. But we see the red spirals even in galaxies that are face-on. So we know it’s not just the effect of dust and inclination. So the obvious explanation is gone.”

Galaxy Zoo’s armchair astronomers’ biggest contribution wasn’t just the amount of galaxies they could look at (although the 100,000 plus they classified from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey was key) but more importantly, they are classifying galaxies purely by shape. “Since most elliptical galaxies are red and most spirals are blue,” said Lintott, ” if you’re sorting galaxies in an automated way, it’s very tempting to use color to sort them. But because we have people doing this we could separate the two out. So first we found all the spirals, and then we looked at their colors.”

This work is just the beginning of more investigations into these unusual red spiral galaxies. “This paper is our first look at all of this,” Lintott said. “One thing we’re particularly excited about that we’re working on now is looking to see what the black holes in these galaxies are doing. Whenever you see star formation being turned off, we like to blame the black hole. So it will be interesting to see what’s going on there.”

For more information:
Galaxy Zoo
STAGES

Galaxy Zoo’s paper
STAGES paper

Sources: RAS, interview with Chris Lintott

November 24, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

It’s Official: Juno is Going to Jupiter

NASA has decided to return to Jupiter with a mission to conduct an unprecedented, in-depth study of the largest planet in our solar system. The mission is called Juno, and it will be the first in which a spacecraft is placed in a highly elliptical polar orbit around the giant planet to understand its formation, evolution and structure. Missions to Jupiter have been on again, off again, with a mission to Europa falling during the 2006 budget cuts, and the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (which would have used a nuclear reactor to power an ion engine to send an orbiter to 3 of Jupiter’s moons) getting the ax in 2005. Juno has been on the table since 2004, surviving budget cuts, although the mission has experienced delays. But it looks official now, and the spacecraft is scheduled to launch in August 2011, reaching Jupiter in 2016.

Scientists say studying Jupiter is important because it hold secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our early solar system. “Jupiter is the archetype of giant planets in our solar system and formed very early, capturing most of the material left after the sun formed,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “Unlike Earth, Jupiter’s giant mass allowed it to hold onto its original composition, providing us with a way of tracing our solar system’s history.”

The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter 32 times, skimming about 3,000 miles over the planet’s cloud tops for approximately one year. The mission will be the first solar powered spacecraft designed to operate despite the great distance from the sun.

Artists concept of Juno at Jupiter. Credit: NASA

“Jupiter is more than 400 million miles from the sun or five times further than Earth,” Bolton said. “Juno is engineered to be extremely energy efficient.”

The spacecraft will use a camera and nine science instruments to study the hidden world beneath Jupiter’s colorful clouds. The suite of science instruments will investigate the existence of an ice-rock core, Jupiter’s intense magnetic field, water and ammonia clouds in the deep atmosphere, and explore the planet’s aurora borealis.

Understanding the formation of Jupiter is essential to understanding the processes that led to the development of the rest of our solar system and what the conditions were that led to Earth and humankind. Similar to the sun, Jupiter is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. A small percentage of the planet is composed of heavier elements. However, Jupiter has a larger percentage of these heavier elements than the sun.

“Juno gives us a fantastic opportunity to get a picture of the structure of Jupiter in a way never before possible,” said James Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It will allow us to take a giant step forward in our understanding on how giant planets form and the role that plays in putting the rest of the solar system together. ”

The last mission to Jupiter was the Galileo mission, which began its observations of the giant planet in 1995, made 35 orbits, and then was intentionally flown into the planet in 2003 to avoid any contamination of Jupiter’s moons.

Source: NASA

November 24, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Sources of Earth-Bombarding Cosmic Rays May Have Been Located

The cosmic ray hot spots were identified in the two red-colored regions near the constellation Orion. Courtesy John Pretz, LANL

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Last week’s announcement of a puzzling and unknown source of high energy cosmic rays bombarding the Earth is now joined by another discovery of two sources of unexpected cosmic rays from nearby regions of space. A Los Alamos National Laboratory cosmic-ray observatory has seen for the first time two distinct hot spots that appear to be bombarding Earth with an excess of cosmic rays. “These two results may be due to the same, or different, astrophysical phenomenon, said Jordan Goodman, principal investigator for the Milagro observatory, commenting on last week’s announcement by the ATIC experiment and the new discovery by his team. “However, they both suggest the presence of high-energy particle acceleration in the vicinity of the earth. Our new findings point to general locations for the localized excesses of cosmic-ray protons.” The cosmic rays appear to originate from an area in the sky near the constellation Orion.

Researchers used Los Alamos’ Milagro cosmic-ray observatory to peer into the sky above the northern hemisphere for nearly seven years starting in July 2000. The observatory is unique in that it monitors the entire sky above the northern hemisphere. Because of its design and field of view, Milagro was able to record over 200 billion cosmic-ray collisions with the Earth’s atmosphere.

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles that move through our Galaxy from sources far away. No one knows exactly where cosmic rays come from, but scientists theorize they might originate from supernovae—massive stars that explode— from quasars or perhaps from other exotic, less-understood or yet-to-be-discovered sources within the universe.

“Our observatory is unique in that we can detect events of low enough energies that we were able to record enough cosmic-ray encounters to see a statistically significant fractional excess coming from two distinct regions of the sky,” said collaborator Brenda Dingus.

Because Milagro was able to record so many cosmic-ray events, researchers for the first time were able to see statistical peaks in the number of cosmic-ray events originating from specific regions of the sky near the constellation Orion. The region with the highest hot spot of cosmic rays is a concentrated bulls eye above and to the right visually of Orion, near the constellation Taurus. The other hot spot is a comma-shaped region visually occurring near the constellation Gemini.

But the researchers cannot be sure they have precisely located the sources of the cosmic rays. “Whatever the source of the protons we observed with Milagro, their path to Earth is deflected by the magnetic field of the Milky Way so that we cannot directly tell exactly where they originate,” said Goodman. “And whether the regions of excess seen by Milagro actually point to a source of cosmic rays, or are the result of some other unknown nearby effect is an important question raised by our observations.”

A new, second-generation cosmic ray observatory has been proposed, which may be able to solve the mystery of the origin of cosmic rays. The experiment, named the High Altitude Water Cherenkov experiment (HAWC), would be built at a high-altitude site in Mexico.

Sources: UMD, Science Daily

November 24, 2008March 9, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

Mr. Fixit In Space Invents Zero-G Coffee Cup

Pettit and the Zero G Coffee Cup. Credit: NASA TV

I have no doubt that the astronauts on board the International Space Station and shuttle Endeavour will be able to fix the balky urine recycling water system. Why? Mr. Fixit is part of the crew.

During his stay on the ISS in 2002/2003 as part of Expedition 6, astronaut Don Pettit became well known for his Saturday Morning Science and tinkering with broken hardware. He’s also renowned among astronauts for building or fixing things with paper clips. But now as part of the STS-126 shuttle crew, he has invented something close to his heart: a zero-g coffee cup.

Like many Americans, Pettit loves his coffee. But drinking coffee from a bag just isn’t the same as sipping and savoring your morning brew. Until now, all liquids have been sipped from a bag in space because of how liquids operate in a zero gravity environment. But during his off-time on Sunday, Pettit used a piece of plastic ripped from his Flight Data File mission book and folded it into a airplane-wing shaped cup.

How does it work?

Surface tension inside the cup keeps the coffee from getting out and floating around the ISS and possibly causing problems.

“We’re no longer sipping from a bag, we can drink from a cup,” said Pettit. “With the special shape of this cup, the surface tension forces will wick the coffee up along the edge.”

The cross section of the cup looks like an airplane wing, and the narrow angle will ‘wick’ the liquid up. “This is what we use when we design fuel tanks for rockets to reignite in weightless environment,” said Pettit. “The veins in the tank will wick the fluids into the suction port. Knowing this for a fuel tank, you can make a cup, and you can enjoy sipping a cup of coffee instead of drinking from a bag.”

See a video here from on collectSPACE.

But Pettit was also busy yesterday using his tinkering skills to fix the water recycling system which will allow astronauts to convert urine, sweat and other used water into potable water. The problem with the system appears to be too much vibration from a centrifuge motor, and on Sunday Pettit removed some rubber dampers from a distillation assembly in hopes of fixing the problem. While the system ran longer than it has previously, it ultimately shut down once again.

The water recycling system is crucial for NASA’s plans to increase the station’s crew size from three to six in May 2009. NASA managers had hoped to collect test water from the urine recycling system and send samples home with the shuttle crew for testing to make sure the water is safe for drinking and cooking.. and making coffee. So, with Pettit aboard, I’m thinking the water recycling system is in good hands, and fixing it is probably a priority for him.

“I like to call it the coffee machine,” said Pettit in an interview before launch about the urine to water system. “It will take yesterday’s coffee and turn it into today’s coffee.”

Sources: collectSPACE, Space.com

November 24, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

SpaceX Wakes Up the Neighbors

SpaceX Falcon 9 test. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX conducted a successful full mission-length firing of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle’s first stage at its McGregor Test Facility in Texas, late Saturday evening, November 22. But the big news wasn’t the success of the firing, but the brouhaha it created with the neighboring communities. The test occurred at 10:30 pm local time, and the light and noise created by the test was unprecedented, causing a bit of panic. People said it sounded like a bomb exploding, that their house and windows shook the entire time, and one woman said her son was scared the sun was exploding. Television news reports convey the panic, and some online newspaper articles have an incredible amount of comments posted. But SpaceX has conducted over 2,000 previous engine tests and this one is the only test that prompted such a commotion … why?

SpaceX spokesperson Lauren Dryer said the weather conditions at the time of the test contributed to sound and light traveling further. “A combination of low clouds and cool temperatures drastically affected the distance the sound and light traveled,” Dryer said, making the test easier to see and hear from much farther away. She said the company has never had any previous calls or concerns with test firings, even though SpaceX has conducted more than 2,000 tests since operations began in 2003, including 10 multiple-engine tests similar to Saturday’s. SpaceX said they notified local police and fire departments about the test, put a notice in the local newspaper and even put it on the marquee of the area high school, but obviously many residents had no clue the test was going to occur. SpaceX said they will try to put out more notices about future tests as well as invite the media to cover them.

For the static test firing, the first stage remained firmly secured to a huge vertical test stand, where it fired for 178 seconds or nearly three minutes, which simulates the climb the rocket will take to Earth orbit. At full power, the rocket generated 855,000 pounds of force at sea level. In vacuum, the thrust increases to approximately one million pounds or four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft. The test consumed over half a million pounds of propellant.

All nine engines fired for 160 seconds, then two engines were shut down to limit the acceleration and the remaining seven engines continued firing for 18 more seconds, as would occur in a typical climb to orbit. The test firing validated the design of SpaceX’s use of nine engines on the first stage, as well as the ability to shut down engines without affecting the functioning of the remaining engines. This demonstrates the ability of Falcon 9 to lose engines in flight and still complete its mission successfully, much as a commercial airliner is designed to be safe in the event of an engine loss. The Falcon 9 will be the first vehicle since the Saturn V and Saturn 1 to have the ability to lose any engine/motor and still be able to complete its mission without loss of crew or spacecraft.

Sources: SpaceX, Waco Tribune Herald, KXXV TV

November 23, 2008April 26, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

Satellite Tracker Captures Lost Toolbag on Video

j Toolbag just out of the reach of Heide Stefanyshn-Piper. Credit: AP/NASA TV

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The toolbag lost by spacewalkers this past week is being tracked by satellite observers and one veteran observer actually captured the toolbag whizzing by on video! Kevin Fetter from Brockville, Ontario video-recorded the backpack-sized toolbag last night, Nov. 22 from his backyard. “It was easily 8th magnitude or brighter as it passed by the 4th magnitude star eta Pisces,” Fetter said. Check out the video here. What these “amateurs” can’t do these days! If you’d like to try to see the toolbag yourself, here’s the link to Space Weather’s Satellite Tracker, so you can find out when it will be traveling over your backyard. This site provides satellite observations times for residents of the US and Canada. The expensive toolbag floated away from Endeavour astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper during the STS-126 mission’s first spacewalk on Nov. 18th. Whoever said the toolbag was lost never to be seen again!

And just why does that toolbag cost $100,000?

Lost tool bag floats away from the ISS. Credit: NASA

“The cost included the EVA crew lock bag itself, four retractable tethers, two adjustable equipment tethers, a grease gun with a straight nozzle, two wire ties, a grease gun with a J-hook nozzle, an EVA wipe caddy, six EVA wipes (two wet, four dry), a scraper debris container, a SARJ scraper and a large trash bag,” NASA spokesman Mike Curie.

Most of that equipment and the bag are not just something you can pick up at your local hardware store. They are specialized hardware that had to be specifically created and certified for the harsh environment of space, able to work properly in a vacuum and withstand temperature swings from plus 200 degrees F (93 C) and minus 200 degrees F (-128 C).

And if you want to complain about astronauts losing things in space, then you go put on a pair of bulky, stiff gloves and a spacesuit (and a diaper) and try to do some very intricate, demanding work in zero gravity for about seven hours!

sources: SpaceWeather.com, Orlando Sentinel

November 21, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Bright Meteor Seen Over Western Canada

Images of the meteor. Credit: SpaceWeather.com

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A bright fireball lit up the sky over parts of Canada and was probably a meteor which may have hit the ground in central Alberta. Reports from all over western Canada said the bright flashes occurred at 5:30 pm MST on Nov. 20. The bolide split the evening sky and fragmented during a series of booming explosions. The image above is from a video taken by Andy Bartlett, who recorded the event from a 10th-floor apartment in Edmonton, Alberta with his Canon A510. Watch the movie here. “The brilliant fireball appeared to be closer than the airplane in the upper right corner of this video,” said Bartlett. Another video was taken by a serendipitously placed surveillance camera. See a news report from a Canadian television station here.

So what was this object?

The possibility of the object being part of a Russian rocket has been ruled out, but astronomers say it will take time for experts to work through videos and photos to find out what exactly occurred. Astronomers need views of the event from at least two sites to triangulate where a meteorite might have hit and where any small pieces could possibly be found. However, it may have burned up completely in the atmosphere. One educator said the object was probably no bigger than the size of a grapefruit as it entered Earth’s atmosphere, probably traveling about 60 km per second.

Sources: Space Weather
, MSN news

November 21, 2008April 26, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

How To Be a Frugal Astronomer

These are tough economic times for almost everyone, including those of us interested in doing a little backyard astronomy. Even if you’re a casual astronomer or have never done much observing, gazing at the stars might be just the remedy you need to take your mind off any financial woes. Brian Ventrudo, the editor over at One-Minute Astronomer has put together a list of 25 tips and resources that are almost entirely free to help you enjoy astronomy on a tight budget. It’s a great list (it includes a tip to read Universe Today!), so check out Brian’s article, and while you’re there you should subscribe to his newsletter, too.

More about the One-Minute Astronomer…

I’ve subscribe to the One-Minute Astronomer for awhile now, but didn’t know much about the background of the site. So I emailed Brian, and he told me that he developed the website and newsletter to fill a niche where people interested in astronomy can get short easy-to-read articles that help them learn more about astronomy and get more out of their hobby. “A lot of beginners and near-beginners get frustrated after a while and sometimes get information overload,”Brian said, “So my site helps them through by giving useful (usually!) advice and information.”

The One-Minute Astronomer sends out two emails each week to subscribers, and as the name implies, it only takes a minute to read his great advice. That minute is a great “investment” for your interest in astronomy (to continue the economic thread here…!)

About the 25 tips for being a frugal astronomer article Brian said, “Many of my subscribers ask where they can find good free information, so I thought I’d put it all in one place for them. And it’s timely with all the nastiness going on with the economy and markets.”

November 21, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Another Direct Image of an Exoplanet?

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Have the floodgates opened for imaging exoplanets?! A team of French astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have discovered an object located very close to the star Beta Pictoris. This object lies only 8 times the Earth-Sun distance, and it’s likely a giant planet that astronomers suspected was there from the peculiar shape of the disc that surrounds the star. If the object is actually a planet, this would then be the first image of a planet that is as close to its host star as Saturn is to the Sun. This comes on the heels of the news of two of the first direct images ever of exoplanets just last week (see here and here).

Only 12 million years old, the ‘baby star’ Beta Pictoris is located about 70 light-years away towards the constellation Pictor (the Painter). The above image is an infrared image, and visible is the dusty debris disk surrounding the star Beta Pictoris. Debris discs are composed of dust resulting from collisions among larger bodies like planetary embryos or asteroids, and they are a bigger version of the zodiacal dust in our Solar System. Its disc was the first to be imaged — as early as 1984 — and remains the best-studied system. Earlier observations showed a warp of the disc, a secondary inclined disc and infalling comets onto the star. “These are indirect, but tell-tale signs that strongly suggest the presence of a massive planet lying between 5 and 10 times the mean Earth-Sun distance from its host star,” says team leader Anne-Marie Lagrange. “However, probing the very inner region of the disc, so close to the glowing star, is a most challenging task.”

Using an adaptive optics system in infrared wavelengths attached to the VLT, the astronomers were able to discern a feeble, point-like glow well inside the star’s halo. To eliminate the possibility that this was an artifact and not a real object, a battery of tests was conducted and several members of the team, using three different methods, did the analysis independently, always with the same success. Moreover, the companion was also discovered in other data sets, further strengthening the team’s conclusion: the companion is real.

“Our observations point to the presence of a giant planet, about 8 times as massive as Jupiter and with a projected distance from its star of about 8 times the Earth-Sun distance, which is about the distance of Saturn in our Solar System,” says Lagrange.

“We cannot yet rule out definitively, however, that the candidate companion could be a foreground or background object,” cautions co-worker Gael Chauvin. “To eliminate this very small possibility, we will need to make new observations that confirm the nature of the discovery.”

The fact that the candidate companion lies in the plane of the disc also strongly implies that it is bound to the star and its proto-planetary disc.

“Moreover, the candidate companion has exactly the mass and distance from its host star needed to explain all the disc’s properties. This is clearly another nail in the coffin of the false alarm hypothesis,” adds Lagrange.

Candidate planetary systems imaged. Credit: ESO

When confirmed, this candidate companion will be the closest planet from its star ever imaged. In particular, it will be located well inside the orbits of the outer planets of the Solar System. Several other planetary candidates have indeed been imaged, but they are all located further away from their host star: if located in the Solar System, they would lie close or beyond the orbit of the farthest planet, Neptune. The formation processes of these distant planets are likely to be quite different from those in our Solar System and in Beta Pictoris.

“Direct imaging of extrasolar planets is necessary to test the various models of formation and evolution of planetary systems. But such observations are only beginning. Limited today to giant planets around young stars, they will in the future extend to the detection of cooler and older planets, with the forthcoming instruments on the VLT and on the next generation of optical telescopes,” concludes team member Daniel Rouan.

For a list of candidate exoplanets directly imaged, see this link.

Source: ESO