That last line should read: Fomalhaut b is the first optically confirmed exoplanet.

And then [Dr. Phil Plait] seems to have forgotten or discounted our little orange dwarf 1 RSX J160929.1-210524 and its exoplanet when noting Fomalhaut b for this honour!

Err… StevoR, Dr. Phil Plait has not “forgotten or discounted” the K7 dwarf star 1RSX J160929.1-210524 and its exoplanet. It is because the exoplanet — more likely a Brown Dwarf — around aforementioned star hasn’t been confirmed yet, as he mentioned to someone else who raised the point in his recent post (click on my name for the link), that is the reason why he stated that Fomalhaut b is the first confirmed exoplanet.

1. Fomalhaut b 2008 Nov Nearby bright star

2. Beta Pictoris b 2008 Nov. Nearby brightish star

3. HR 8799 b,c & d Nov.2008 Distant Procyonese (?)(1.5 mass Solar) star withprotoplanetary disk containg planets at 25,40 & 70 AU.

4. 1 RSX J160929.1-210524 K7 orange dwarf Sept 15th 8x Mass Jove 11 x Neptune’s distance (or 330 AU?)

5.2M 1207b or in full 2 MASSW J1207334-393254 imaged April 27th 2004 around a brown dwarf, a 5 Jupiter-mass exoplanet or perhaps brown dwarf this planet orbits 55 AU from its brown dwarf sun.

6.GQ Lupi b 2004ish (?) Probable brown dwarf 1-42 mJ @100 AU

7. AB Pictoris b 2003 March (earliest but probable brown dwarf) 250 AU out.

Pretty impressive & amazing.

Well it is to me at least, I love hearingabout exoplanets and frankly I don’t know why more isn’t made of such discoveries of entirely new planets around other stars by the media and wider community.

BTW. Speaking personally, my preference would be for limiting the term ’sun-like’ to main-sequnce dwarf stars of classes G, F and K.

And then seems to have forgotten or discounted our little orange dwarf 1 RSX J160929.1-210524 and its exoplanet when noting Fomalhaut b for this honour!

Click my name for the BA’s write up on Fomalhaut b and HR8799 b,c & d being imaged. Busy – and great – time for exoplanet imaging of late.

Congratulations to all those involved in this discovery. Awesome news if quickly surpassed by even better candidates, incl. now Beta Pictoris b. (?)

Also a question :

How like our Sun does a star have to be before counting as a Sun-like star? G type yellow dwarf only? G K & F class? Main-sequence (I’ve seen Altair, a
fairly hot massive A-type star called “sunlike” which I’d dispute!) or what?

BTW. BA please could we have a better archives system here? One that shows us more stories (or headlines therof?) so we can find items /posts threads /whatever y’callems more quickly rather than having to scroll through so so many older entries pages? Please?

Surely I’m not the only who thinks ‘Oh wasn’t there a story about X a while ago?’ and tries to find it by checking back …?