Space.com reports it has the first confirmed pictures of a planet from a different solar system. Apparently it is twice the size of Jupiter.
The star, GQ Lupi, has been observed by a team of European astronomers since 1999. They have made three images using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. The Hubble Space Telescope and the Japanese Subaru Telescope each contributed an image, too.
The work was led by Ralph Neuhaeuser of the Astrophysical Institute & University Observatory (AIU). "The detection of the faint object near the bright star is certain," Neuhaeuser told SPACE.com on Friday. The system is young, so the planet is rather warm, like a bun fresh out of the oven. That warmth made it comparatively easier to see in the glare of its host star compared with more mature planets. Also, the planet is very far from the star -- about 100 times the distance between Earth and the Sun, another factor in helping to separate the light between the two objects.
The discovery will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Neuhaeuser's co-authors include Ph.D. student Markus Mugrauer, who performed the observations, and Guenther Wuchterl. "This is the first directly imaged and confirmed companion to a Sun-like star, and as such marks the dawn of a new era in planet detection," said Ray Jayawardhana, a University of Toronto researcher who was not involved in the discovery but has seen the scientific paper.
So there we have it.
That ought to trouble the astrologers of this world. :)
Pope Passes Away
It's not Space News; I'm not Catholic; I'm not particularly interested in it except as an event in history; but it seemed stupid not to note it today. Pope John Paul II has passed away on this day.
The Vatican said the pope died at 9:37 p.m. (2:37 p.m. EST). The assembled flock fell into a stunned silence before some people broke out in applause — an Italian tradition in which mourners often clap for important figures. Others wept.
John Paul's passing set in motion centuries of tradition that mark the death of the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. The Vatican chamberlain formally verified the death, which in the past was done by tapping a pope's forehead three times with a silver hammer. The Vatican summoned the College of Cardinals, and the Vatican chamberlain destroyed the symbols of the pope's authority: his fisherman's ring and dies used to make lead seals for apostolic letters.
I bet in the distant past that silver hammer tapping thing was done a few times to make sure some much less loved Pontiff was dead... :)
John Paul II, may you rest in peace. You were the Pope for the better part of my life and in many, many ways you have contributed greatly to the world I live in, shaping it, nursing it and shepherding it.
- Art Neuro
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