Hubble Snaps Photo of Extrasolar Planet

iamlucky13 writes "Space.com has reported that a Hubble Space Telescope photo supports with a very high degree of confidence that a picture taken by the European Space Observatory does indeed show an extrasolar planet. As many readers know, planets outside our solar system are typically found by watching for wobbles in a star's orbit or for dimming caused by the planet crossing in front of its star. The ESO and Hubble images would represent the 1st and 2nd times that planets outside our solar system have been directly detected. The planet is about 5 times as massive as Jupiter and orbits a brown dwarf a little farther out than Pluto orbits our own sun."

grainy!

[dioscaido]

how many megapixels does the hubble have?

Headline

[truthsearch]

You gotta love the Register's headline for this story: "Extra-solar planet snapped by galactic paparazzi [theregister.com]". I supposed they are looking at a big star, but... Anyway, gave me a chuckle.

High degree of confidence

[Jarlsberg]

I took a photo on a beach this holiday, and I can with a high degree of confidence say I spotted something that looked like a girl in the distance. (I think she was running away though.)

Ok, so mod me off topic. :P

Anyways, it's hard to get excited about this. I mean, it's just a few pixels on a grainy image. I know I should be excited and all, but I'll hold on the enthusiasm until we're able to take a *real* picture of an extra-solar planet.

Re:Headline

[T-Kir]

Naa, the blur is there to make the planet look artificially younger... you know, iron out all those wrinkles and signs of its real age. ;-)

Mirror image

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the server is down, here is a mirror image:

.

Best wishes,

Tels

Re:Probability

[Cyberax]

Don't you know that 58% of statistics are made up?

Re:Girls

[AviLazar]

Tell them they will get a lifetime supply of coach/vendi purses and versaci shoes

Re:Here's why you don't wanna go

[AviLazar]

So what do we do? Stop the effort to travel? Travel shorter distances (lets colonize the moon). Pick up the ships along the way? "Hey on your way to planet XYZ would you stop by and pick up space shuttle 1 - they've been on the road for 20 years you know. Oh and I hear one of the passangers, Avi, likes La Columbe Coffee and is going crazy because he is forced to drink harbucks" Put the ship and tow and continue onward with Half-Life 15: Counter Strike - Beyond the Source

Proposed Solution

[rk]

In other words, by the time the first explorers (that's you) arrive, there will already be 150 Starbucks franchises on the planet, the planet will be launching its own missions to further stars, and you will be turned back at the spaceport for not having the right Visas in your passport.

So, what you do before setting out in your first generation colony ship is to form an organization back an Earth whose mission it is to manage a trust/foundation and apply newer technology as it becomes available to support your colonization mission. So that when you get there, there may be 150 Starbuck's franchises, but you own them all.

That itself could be another interesting SF story about the changes a colony goes through when the owners/founders finally arrive after it's been operating for several generations.