Fomalhaut b: The first directly observed exoplanet

Scientists using NASA's Hubble telescope have taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet orbiting another star. The images show the planet, named Fomalhaut b, estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter's mass, as a tiny point source of light orbiting the nearby, bright southern star Fomalhaut (HD 216956, Alpha Piscis Austrini), located 25 light-years (7.7 parsecs) away in the constellation Piscis Australis (Southern Fish). An immense debris disk about 21.5 billion miles across surrounds the star. Fomalhaut b is orbiting 1.8 billion miles inside the disk's sharp inner edge...

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