Two years after making the claim, a team of astronomers says it holds bragging rights to releasing the first ever direct picture of an alien planet orbiting a sunlike star. Most of the more than 400 known extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, have been found using indirect detection methods, such as looking for changes in starlight as a planet's gravity tugs on its host star, or as the planet passes in front of the star. Unveiled in September 2008, a picture from the Gemini North telescope. (source: news.nationalgeographic.com)
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