What are exoplanets, anyway?
Astronomers have discovered more than 155 extrasolar planets – these are called “exoplanets” – outside of our own solar system, circling stars other than our Sun. And up until May of 2005, no one has ever taken an image of an exoplanet. Then a team of American and European astronomers did just that. Now we have our first picture of a large planet, some five times larger than Jupiter, circling around a star known as 2M1207A, which is 170 light-years away. The new object is called 2M1207b. I’m sure that’s what I would have called the object if I had discovered it. But it does make you wonder just who might be looking back at us on these planets as we look back at them. No. 8: The blast from beyond This blast wave has traveled for 50,000 years before it reached us in December of 2004. That is when our satellites detected the brightest outburst beyond our solar system ever recorded. The original blast gave off more energy in one-tenth of a second than the Sun emits in 100,000 years. Try to
