The First Image of an Exoplanet Confirmed

An international team of astronomers reports today confirmation of the discovery of a giant planet, approximately five times the mass of Jupiter, that is gravitationally bound to a young brown dwarf. This puts an end to a year long discussion on the nature of this object, which started with the detection of a red object close to the brown dwarf.

In February and March of this year, the astronomers took new images of the young brown dwarf and its giant planet companion with the state-of-the-art NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in northern Chile. The planet is near the southern constellation of Hydra and approximately 200 light years from Earth.

ESO Press Video eso0515 is a small montage providing excerpts of an interview with Dr. Gael Chauvin (ESO), leader of the team of astronomers who took the image of the 2M1207 system, as well as a computer animation of what the system might look like.

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