This Is Our First Direct Look at a Multiplanet System Around a Sun-like Star
Phoenix666 writes:
Astronomers know of thousands of planets around other stars, yet only a handful have been imaged directly. The existence of the rest is inferred by how they affect their stars.
Now the world's largest optical telescope has directly spied a new planetary system-the first time more than one planet has been imaged around a star like our Sun. Astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to observe the Sun-like star TYC 8998-760-1, 300 light-years from Earth. Using the VLT's Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) instrument, which is equipped with an optical mask called a coronagraph to block out a star's light, they were able to see two planets orbiting it [pictured here], as reported today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Some light from the star can be seen in the image above (center left) as well as the two giant planets (right) and a scattering of background stars.
The star system is very young at 17 million years old.
Also at AstronomyNow.
Journal Reference:
Alexander J. Bohn, Matthew A. Kenworthy, Christian Ginski, et al. Two Directly Imaged, Wide-orbit Giant Planets around the Young, Solar Analog TYC 8998-760-1 - IOPscience, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (DOI: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aba27e)
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