The Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible light snapshot of a planet circling another star. A planet outside our solar system is called an extrasolar planet, or an exoplanet.

In winter’s southern sky, the constellation Piscis Austrinus (Southern Fish) can be seen. Its brightest star is Fomalhaut (Mouth of the Whale), located about 25 light years from Earth. Fomalhaut is the 18th brightest star in our sky. Fomalhaut is much hotter than our sun and 16 times brighter. Fomalhaut is about 200 million years old. Fomalhaut has a large dust belt surrounding it that is similar to the Kuiper Belt. Because of its large size, it burns hydrogen at a tremendous rate. Fomalhaut will burn out in a few thousand million years, only about one-tenth the lifespan of our sun. Large stars last millions of years, medium-sized stars like our sun last billions of years, and small stars can last trillions of years.

The exoplanet, called Fomalhaut b, was discovered orbiting Fomalhaut inside its large dust belt. Fomalhaut b is about the mass of three Jupiters. Fomalhaut b is located about 1,800 million miles inside the inner edge of the dust ring. One year on Fomalhaut b takes 872 Earth years, since that’s how long it takes for a complete orbit around its sun. Fomalhaut b may have an icy ring around it, like Saturn, because it’s so bright. Fomalhaut b is about 100 million years old. Life isn’t expected to develop on Fomalhaut b due to its short life span of only several million years. There is no record of any complex life on Earth for the first 4 billion years!