Distant planets observed

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.-Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

It seems not so very long ago that astronomers were only able to deduce the existence of planets around other stars by observing wobbles in the star's motion. But telescope technology has improved and we are now starting to see extra-solar planets. Here is the first photo of a distant planet, 500 light-years away, photographed in 2008 but only recently confirmed.

The star pictured is similar in size to the sun but a million times younger, just a few million years old instead of Sol's 5 billion. The planet (upper-left) is about 8 times the size of Jupiter and still glowing hot from creation.