Optical Images of an Exosolar Planet 25 Light Years from Earth

Understand

Fomalhaut is a bright star 7.7 parsecs (25 light years) from Earth that harbors a belt of cold dust with a structure consistent with gravitational sculpting by an orbiting planet.

• Here, we present optical observations of an exoplanet candidate, Fomalhaut b.
• In the plane of the belt, Fomalhaut b lies approximately 119 astronomical units (AU) from the star and 18 AU from the belt, matching predictions.
• We detect counterclockwise orbital motion using Hubble Space Telescope observations separated by 1.73 years.