Astronomers may have taken the first ever photograph of a planetary system outside our own solar system. The image appears to be a planet orbiting a young brown dwarf star (2M1207) about 230 light years away.

“Our discovery represents a first step towards opening a new field in astrophysics: the imaging and spectroscopic study of planetary systems,” says team member Anne-Marie Lagrange from the Grenoble Observatory in France. “Such studies will enable astronomers to characterise the physical structure and chemical composition of giant and, eventually, terrestrial-like planets.”