Artist's Concept of Exoplanet Orbiting Fomalhaut Target Name:   Extrasolar Planets Spacecraft:   Artwork Produced by:   ESA, NASA, and L. Calcada (ESO for STScI) Copyright:  Copyright Free Date Released:  November 13, 2008

• Hubble Directly Observes Planet Orbiting Fomalhaut
• Planetary System Formation

This illustration shows the newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b, orbiting its sun, Fomalhaut. A structure comprised mostly of brown and gold colors surrounds Fomalhaut b. This structure is a Saturn-like ring that astronomers say may encircle the planet. Fomalhaut also is surrounded by a ring of material. The edge of this vast disk is shown in the background as the curving cloud-like feature that appears to intersect the 200-million-year-old star. Fomalhaut b lies 1.8 billion miles inside the disk's inner edge. The planet completes an orbit around Fomalhaut every 872 years.