Is this the first image of an extrasolar planet? To be sure, ESO's Very Large Telescope has to take a few more such infrared images in the course of the year to see whether the red object is indeed orbiting the main source.
This discovery would certainly be a major step in the study of exoplanets (CERN Courier October 2004 p19),even though this star-planet couple does not at all resemble our solar system. The reddish planet would be five times more massive than Jupiter and would orbit the bluish star - a brown dwarf 42 times lighter than the Sun - at a distance exceeding Pluto's orbit. (ESO.)
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Compiled by Marc Türler, INTEGRAL Science Data Centre