First image of a planet around a sister of our Sun
![planet-object-02[1].jpg](http://blogs.sundaymercury.net/weirdscience/planet-object-02%5B1%5D.jpg)
Astronomers have taken the first direct image of a planet-like object orbiting a star much like our own sun.
Though it's unlike anything you'll find in our own solar system.
The pictures were taken in May and August during early test runs of a new planet-hunting instrument on the Hawaii-based Subaru Telescope.
GJ 758 B orbits a parent star comparable in mass and temperature to our own sun, said study team member Michael McElwain of Princeton University
The star lies 300 trillion miles (480 trillion km), or about 50 light-years, from Earth.
Scientists aren't sure if the object is a large planet or a brown dwarf, which is essentially a failed star.
They estimate its mass to be 10 to 40 times that of Jupiter. Objects above 13 Jupiters (and below the mass needed to ignite nuclear reactions in stars) are considered to be brown dwarfs.
The planet-like object is currently at least 29 times as far from its star as the Earth is from the sun, or about the distance between the sun and Neptune.
The scientists say telescope images have revealed a possible second companion to the star, which they are calling GJ 758 C, though more observations are needed to confirm whether it is actually nearby or just looks that way.
Weird Science Factoid: The Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal is farther east than the Atlantic entrance. Go on, check your map!
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Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
