Extrasolar Planets

Up until now, planets around other stars were studied indirectly by means of their gravitational "tug" on their star. However, thanks to NASA's Spitzer Telescope, the light from planets has now, for the first time, been detected directly. This is a great step in the field of extrasolar planetary astronomy! Here is one of the many articles published on the topic in the past few days:

First Light Seen from an Extrasolar Planet