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I feel cheated... I glance at the image, see that bulge in the ring and was immediately excited that they had captured the visual image of an exoplanet (even if
by NoMoreNicksLeft 4y ago
I feel cheated... I glance at the image, see that bulge in the ring and was immediately excited that they had captured the visual image of an exoplanet (even if it was going to be a large brown dwarf).
Nope, just something behind the ring.
- Synaesthesia 4y agoA visual of an exoplanet is still beyond the possibility of anything but a REALLY big telescope (100m)+
- hotshot1001 4y agoActually we've imaged many exoplanets, but typically ones that are much larger than Jupiter. Here's a famous system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HR_8799 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HR_8799
- NoMoreNicksLeft 4y agoThank you for the link, it's wonderful.
- Synaesthesia 4y agoThey were able to detect the planet due to the observed orbital motion on the star, not that they were able to get an image of the planet itself.
- Vox_Leone 4y ago>I glance at the image, see that bulge in the ring and was immediately excited that they had captured the visual image of an exoplanet (even if it was going to be a large brown dwarf). I was under the same impression. Upon a second look it became clear that blob is roughly 8 AU in diameter [judging by the overall scale]
- NoMoreNicksLeft 4y agoI'm not sure that an 8AU diameter would be that absurd, if we're talking about a proto-planetary nebula, would it? But yeh, if I weren't a nitwit, the scale's completely wrong (and it should be hoovering up the ring in short order besides).