Image of the star AB Aurigae taken by the Subaru Telescope showing the spiral arms in the disk and the newly-discovered protoplanet AB Aur b. The bright central star has been masked, and its location is indicated by the star mark (☆). The size of Neptune’s orbit in the Solar System is shown to provide scale. The Image without caption is here (0.7 MB). (Credit: T. Currie/Subaru Telescope)
Using the Subaru telescope on Maunakea, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-like planet in the process of being formed in another solar system. This ground-breaking experiment provides evidence for a long-debated alternative theory for how Jupiter-like planets form.
Read more, in the Subaru Telescope web release.
Discovery image of the planet 2M0437, which lies about 100 times the Earth-Sun distance from its parent star. The image was taken with IRCS on the Subaru Telescope. The much-brighter host star has been mostly removed, and the four "spikes" are artifacts produced by the optics of the telescope. (Credit: University of Hawai`i)