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Fomalhaut B "First" Planet Picture in Doubt
from USA Today
The Hubble space telescope's first photo of a planet, Fomalhaut b, orbiting a nearby star, may
actually be "scattered dust" and not a planet, reports an astronomy team.
The original observation scientists, led by Paul Kalas of the University of California,
Berkeley, however, say the new critical report relies on observations unable to resolve the
Saturn-sized ringed planet they argue orbits the star Fomalhaut.
In 2008, Kalas and colleagues reported the Fomalhaut b image, "the first visible-light
snapshot of a planet circling another star," according to a space agency statement. In the
Science journal study, they reported that Hubble used a "coronograph" technique,
removing direct light from Fomalhaut, some 25 light years away (one light-year is about 5.9
trillion miles), to reveal an apparent planet in the dust disk swirling around the star.
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