Planet - Fomalhaut b

Fomalhaut b, is the smallest of a handful of planets that have been directly imaged from Earth. Obtaining images of an exoplanet is only possible in exceptional circumstances, not only because planets are small and dim, but also because they are always in the vicinity of much larger and more brilliant stars. Fomalhaut b was found because it orbits a young star surrounded by a dense cloud of gas and dust. Scientists observing the star with the Hubble Space Telescope noticed that the inner edge ends abruptly, suggesting that a planet had cleared away the debris in that region. After closely observing a series of images taken at different times, they found a dot that moved around the star – a planet. According to estimates Fomalhaut b is three times the mass of Jupiter and orbits its star at a distance of 17 billion kilometers, equivalent to ten times the distance of Saturn from the Sun. At such a distance it takes the planet more than 800 years to complete each orbit. Because of its unusual brilliance, scientists believe that it is surrounded by a thick set of bright rings, many times larger and more dense than Saturn's



Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomalhaut_b
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~echiang/fomalhaut/fom.html