First photo of multiple giant planets orbiting a star similar to our Sun

Even though astronomers have indirectly detected thousands of planets in our galaxy, only a tiny fraction of these exoplanets have been directly imaged, says co-author Matthew Kenworthy, Associate Professor at Leiden University, adding that direct observations are important in the search for environments that can support life. The direct imaging of two or more exoplanets around the same star is even more rare; only two such systems have been directly observed so far, both around stars markedly different from our Sun. The new ESOs VLT image is the first direct image of more than one exoplanet around a Sun-like star. ESOs VLT was also the first telescope to directly image an exoplanet, back in 2004, when it captured a speck of light around a brown dwarf, a type of failed star.

Our team has now been able to take the first image of two gas giant companions that are orbiting a young, solar analogue, says Maddalena Reggiani, a postdoctoral researcher from KU Leuven, Belgium, who also participated in the study.