The proof is out there…thanks to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Hubble took the first picture of a planet outside our solar system orbiting a star called Fomalhaut, NASA has announced.
Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkley, and his team have been studying debris around the star since 2001. Obervations taken 21 months apart show that there is an object moving around that star the way Earth moves around the sun.
An actual image from Hubble showing the planet orbiting its star.
To celebrate this federally supported discovery, we give you the following facts, courtesy of NASA:
- The planet called Fomalhaut b is located 25 light-years away from us in the costellation Piscis Australis.
- Scientists estimate the planet is three times the mass of Jupiter
- The planet is 10.7 billion miles from the star, 10 times the distance between Saturn and our sun.
- The planet takes 872 years to make a complete orbit around the star.
Photo credit: NASA. For a larger image click here. For addtional media click here.
