Captured on Camera: Are They Planets?

Hunting planets in some of the nearest–and least-explored–star-forming regions

Astronomers have found a new frontier right in Earth’s cosmic backyard. Instead of peering at faint galaxies or imaging the most distant reaches of the universe, some researchers are looking to make groundbreaking discoveries by examining a few nearby groups of newborn stars.

Is this a planet? Using a coronagraph to blot out the light from the bright young star TWA 6 (star shape), an infrared camera on the Hubble Space Telescope recorded a faint object (arrow) that might be an orbiting planet.