First direct image of a planet family around a normal star

[DavidDvorkin]

http://www.gemini.edu/node/11151

[byronius]

1. That. Is. cool.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. And it's bound to keep getting cooler

Even before the next generation of (possibly space) telescopes becomes available, results like this one will spur observatories everywhere to think of new ways to image exoplanets.

I hope.

[Warpy]

3. All they need now is to find living or even fossilized bacteria

on Mars--or elsewhere--and they'll complete the picture.

[Bake]

4. What is a "normal star?"

Bake

[Subdivisions]

5. Most likely a "normal star" is similar to the Sun. The sun is a

Class G star. Here is an interesting read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_classification">Stellar Classification


Class G

The most important class G star to humanity: our Sun. The dark area visible in the lower left is a large sunspot.Class G stars are probably the best known, if only for the reason that our Sun is of this class. Most notable are the H and K lines of Ca II, which are most prominent at G2. They have even weaker hydrogen lines than F, but along with the ionized metals, they have neutral metals. There is a prominent spike in the G band of CH molecules. G is host to the "Yellow Evolutionary Void".<26> Supergiant stars often swing between O or B (blue) and K or M (red). While they do this, they do not stay for long in the G classification as this is an extremely unstable place for a supergiant to be. G stars represent about 1 in 13 of the main sequence stars in the solar neighborhood.

[NeedleCast]

6. I call shotgun on the first space ship we send there