In 2004, the world of astronomy was forever changed with the release of an image that captured the imagination and solidified a long-held belief: planets exist around other stars. This remarkable image, captured by the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), showcased the exoplanet 2M1207b, a Jupiter-like planet, orbiting a brown dwarf known as 2M1207. Located about 170 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus, this system represented a glimpse into the vast diversity of planetary systems beyond our own.
Prior to this discovery, the existence of exoplanets was primarily theoretical. The image of 2M1207b provided the first visual confirmation, marking a significant leap in our understanding of the universe. The image, a composite of three near-infrared exposures, revealed a planet much larger than Jupiter, orbiting a brown dwarf, which sits on the blurry boundary between a star and a planet, with a mass 42 times less than the sun but 25 times greater than Jupiter. This unique configuration highlighted a different process of planet formation, suggesting that 2M1207b didn’t form like the planets in our solar system. Instead, it likely formed through a direct gravitational collapse of a gas and dust cloud, a process similar to the formation of our sun.
The image of 2M1207b, captured using the Yepun telescope at the ESO’s Paranal Observatory, became a testament to the power of direct imaging, a technique used to locate exoplanets by reducing the brightness difference between a star and its orbiting planet. While 2M1207b was the first, it certainly wasn’t the last. Since then, over 200 planets have been directly imaged, and with the discovery of more than 5,600 alien worlds through various methods, the universe continues to unveil its mysteries, proving the vastness and diversity of planetary systems beyond our solar system.
