In the 13
years since the first discovery of a planet orbiting a sunlike star outside our
solar system, astronomers have found about 300 such “extrasolar” planets, but
still have no pictures of any of them.
GPI VIEW This simulation shows what a dim extrasolar planet some four times the mass of Jupiter (green dot) would look like when recorded by an instrument called GPI, set for installation on Gemini South in 2011. This instrument will employ a special mask (center black circle) that hides the parent star’s blinding light. The white path marks the planet’s orbit, and the white dot (above center) is a background star. C. Marois, R. Soummer, L. Poyneer, B. Macintosh and the GPI TeamEXTRASOLAR SNAPSHOTS This summer, astronomers at the Gemini South telescope in Chile will begin using an instrument called NICI to record images — essentially, take pictures — of extrasolar planets.
Manuel ParedesThese 300
orbs have only been detected indirectly: by the wobble of a parent star as an
orbiting planet tugs on it, for example, or by minieclipses a planet generates
as it passes in front of its star. But none of the current methods allow an
astronomer to actually see the planet. With the first optical system devoted to
extrasolar imaging set to begin surveying the heavens this summer —and with two other systems scheduled to come online by early
2011 —