Image of the Fomalhaut debris disk with the image of Fomalhaut b inset. Image credit: P. Kalas, UC Berkeley.

The HR8799 planetary system imaged with the Keck telescope. Image credit: National Research Council of Canada.

Since the detection of the first exoplanet in 1995, exoplanet astronomy has advanced in leaps and bounds. With well over 300 planets known to orbit stars other than the Sun, something special is needed for a discovery to hit the headlines. Today, two separate teams of astronomers are publishing results with a great big X-factor in the journal Science.

For the first time, astronomers have managed to produce images of planetary systems around other stars.

What about this, you ask? This image of the 2M1207 system, hailed as the first even exoplanet image on its release in 2005, is indeed an exoplanet image. But its host is a brown dwarf; a sub-stellar sized object that isn’t massive enough to burn fuel its core.

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