Hiding in Plain Sight.

“It could be a planet, though even if it isn’t, there’s plenty of reason to be excited. For one thing, astronomers got an image of it. The reason it’s so tough to image a planet is its proximity to the blinding light of its star, which in this case is about a million times brighter. It would be like trying to see a candle burning next to the beam of a million-candlepower searchlight.” Astronomers spot a new planet called GJ 785 B — by looking right at it. “In short, says McElwain, ‘We’re using state-of-the-art instruments on a state-of-the-art telescope.'”

One thought on “Hiding in Plain Sight.”

  1. Way cool. But that image shows the star GJ 785 (the giveaway is the little circle in the middle, where it has been masked to stop its light from overwhelming the image), not the exoplanet candidate GJ 785 B. Looks like Time has cropped it so that it doesn’t actually show B, as you can see from this:

    http://www.mpg.de/english/illustrationsDocumentation/documentation/pressReleases/2009/pressRelease20091207/index.html

    However a possible second candidate, C, is visible above, on the end of the spike of starlight in the lower-right corner.

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