Cool And Far Out By: Mark W Adams

You're looking at the coolest, most far out objects ever photographed. 

These three planets, exoplanets orbiting a star 25 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus are the most distant cold-body objects you've ever seen with your very own eyes -- "the first pictures ever taken of planets outside our solar system."

The search for exoplanets has up to now depended on detecting either the wobble they induce on their parent star or, if their orbits are side-on to telescopes, watching them dim the star's light as they pass in front of it.

Being able to directly detect the light from these planets will allow astronomers to study their composition and atmospheres in detail.

(HT: Zatoichi)