October 18, 2010

Planet Hunters No Longer Blinded by the Light: New Way to See Faint Planets Previously Hidden in Their Star's Glare

ScienceDaily for October 17, 2010 reported on a new way to see exoplanets close to their star.

Installed on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, or VLT, atop Paranal Mountain in Chile, the new technology enabled an international team of astronomers to confirm the existence and orbital movement of Beta Pictoris b, a planet about seven to 10 times the mass of Jupiter, around its parent star, Beta Pictoris, 63 light years away.