No, it's not an eye staring back at you ... Somewhere in the bottom right corner of what is actually a massive ring of red space dust is a planet - in fact, the first outside of our own solar system to ever be photographed.

Described as a "landmark discovery", the planet, which may appear tiny, but is about the size of our own biggest brother Jupiter, was snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Along with the debris seen in the image, the planet orbits a star called Fomalhaut, which is one of the brightest in the night sky as its sits a mere 25 light years away from us.



The amazing discovery of the planet that has been dubbed Fomalhaut b recently featured in an article on www.telegraph.co.uk.

The site said that while about 320 so-called exoplanets have been indirectly detected so far outside our solar system "using the wobble they induce in their stars or infrared radiation that is emitted, an exoplanet has never been directly seen by scientists". Until now.

"It's a profound and overwhelming experience to lay eyes on a planet never before seen," Paul Kalas, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, was quoted as saying.

It is believed the planet orbits at a distance of about 11 million miles from the star, which is a staggering four times the distance between Neptune and our own sun. That said, it takes the planet a whopping 872 years to make a full orbit.


But, while Fomalhaut b has officially joined the ranks of the planetary party, scientists are wondering if it has any brothers or sisters, in particular some closer to the sun, with conditions more conducive to life of some form or another.

"There is plenty of empty space between Fomalhaut b and the star for other planets to happily reside in stable orbits,'' Prof. Kalas said.

Unfortunately, any answers are not expected for some time. The 18-year-old Hubble Telescope has done all it can and it's much-needed replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope, won't be in operation until about 2013.



And even if there is life out there in the Fomalhaut system, it won't be around for long, well not as long as some anyway.

It is believed that while the star is only 200-million-years-old - a baby when compared to our own 4.5 billion-year-old sun - but it only has another billion years to live - which is again, much less than the 5 billion our own sun has left in store.

It is due to the fact Fomalhaut is 16 times brighter than our sun.