First light?

TRYING to see a planet in orbit around a distant star—an “extrasolar” planet—is like attempting to observe a moth flying around a light-bulb several hundred kilometres away. The planet does not shine on its own, but is illuminated by its parent star, so when viewed from afar, the planet's feeble light is drowned out by the much brighter light of the star itself. As a result, it is impossible to see extrasolar planets directly, at least with current telescopes. But a group of astronomers now claims to have done the next best thing: to have isolated the faint light from an extrasolar planet by subtracting the far brighter light of its parent star.