Most distant known planet detected

[I, Brian]

The most distant known planet has been detected orbiting a star some 17,000 light-years away, say astronomers. It was found because, as seen from the Earth, it passed in front of a more distant star and its gravity amplified the background star's light.

This "gravitational lensing" effect was predicted by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity.

Nasa says that the way the background star's brightness changed revealed the existence of the planet circling it.

The gravitational field of a foreground star bends and focuses light from a background star, like a lens in a telescope, but only if the foreground and background star are precisely aligned.





More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3631889.stm


Images:
1 - Artist impression of Jupiter-mass planet around red dwarf
2 - one of the actual images