Possible Baby Picture of a Giant Planet 32
astroengine writes "Acquired by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT), an infrared observation shows a portion of the disk of gas and dust around the star HD 100546, located 335 light-years away in the constellation Musca. By physically blocking out the light from the star itself by means of an opaque screen, the light from the protoplanetary disk around HD 100546 can be seen, revealing a large bright clump that's thought to be a planet in the process of formation (PDF). If it is indeed a baby planet, it's a big one — as large as, or perhaps even larger than, Jupiter."
Re:Solved! (Score:5, Insightful)
I was going to get annoyed at TFA for showing an 'artists conception' of the protoplanet but then I glanced at the paper. The pictures there look like a doughnut that ate a bunch of psilocybin. Had to squint and cross my eyes before I could figure out what the authors where talking about.
I want to see actual pixels, dammit.
Re:Solved! (Score:5, Insightful)
No kidding. What the hell is it with these science stories of astronomers finding a picture of something that require an artists impression of said picture to be up front and at the top of the article?
Astronomers take a picture of the accretion disk of a black hole. So here is a picture of what an artist thinks it looks like.
Astronomers take a picture of an earth sized planet light years away. So here is a picture of what an artist thinks it looks like.
Astronomers take a picture of a star getting devoured by a black hole. So here is a picture of what an artist thinks it looks like.
I hate to imagine what the artist's impression of the Pale Blue Dot [wikipedia.org] photo would look like today.