Last fall there was a story about a possible image of an extra-solar planet, but it wasn't clear if the faint object near a brown dwarf was actually in orbit or a more distant, fainter star (follow-up observations will eventually determine this).
But here is the real deal. The planet orbiting GQ Lupi is 1-2 times as massive as Jupiter, but very distant -- three times more distant than Neptune is from our own sun.
This is a milestone.
What the results concerning extra-solar planets tells me is that they're not rare, although exactly how common is far from nailed yet, and that there are a lot of different types of solar systems out there. Our own solar system might be typical, but our technology isn't advanced enough yet to see planetary systems like our own yet, but we're certainly seeing a lot of things that not like our own. As a science fiction writer and a scientist, this makes me happy because it makes the universe a more interesting place.
Posted by Mike at April 2, 2005 11:40 AM