Letters from the June 11, 2005, issue of Science News
By Science News
Dim prospects
To a layman like me, it seems almost impossible that light reflected from a body that lies “much farther from the star than Pluto does from the sun” could be seen from Earth at a distance of 450 light years, when Pluto, only 6 light hours away, reflects so little light to Earth (“Stellar Question: Extrasolar planet or failed star?” SN: 4/9/05, p. 228).
Peter Jeming
Seattle, Wash.
The researchers imaged a star with a companion farther away than Pluto’s distance from Sol. The question was whether this is a planet or a brown dwarf star. That we can see an image at all seems to preclude it from being a planet. It must be producing its own light somehow.