Astronomers have snapped a picture of a planet like those in the Solar System but orbiting another star — the lowest-mass exoplanet ever directly imaged.
Bruce Macintosh of Stanford University in California and his team used the Gemini Planet Imager at the Gemini South Telescope in Chile to photograph the planet orbiting 51 Eridani, a young star 30 parsecs from Earth. The planet (artist's impression pictured) is roughly twice the mass of Jupiter and farther away from its star than Saturn is from the Sun, but is comparatively closer than Uranus.
Spectroscopic analysis of light from the planet revealed strong hints of methane in its atmosphere — similar to that found in the giant planets of the Solar System.
Science http://doi.org/6s6 (2015)
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Direct look at a small exoplanet. Nature 524, 268 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/524268c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/524268c
