I am stunned. This is history.

Extrasolar planets have been imaged.

Stop and think for a moment. We now have pictures of planets in orbit around stars other than the Sun.

In these images the central star has been blocked out to stop the glare, this allows the faintest of faint reflected light be detected.

Here's the first: a dust ring round the star Fomalhaut has a shepherd.


And I did say 'stars'.
Here is the second result, the star is snappily called HR 8799:


HR 8799 also is reported to have a third planet orbiting closer in. I haven't seen an image yet. I'll try to write more at the weekend but you can follow up on Bad Astronomy, Universe Today and BBC news.

Now I am off to calm down.

-----

Update, the BBC has an image of HR 8799 with 3 planets.