Bending Light. <br /> <br />Hubble helps find light-bending world with two suns <br /> <br />Artist’s impression of exoplanet orbiting two stars <br /> <br />This artist’s impression shows a gas giant planet circling the two red dwarf stars in the system OGLE-2007-BLG-349, located 8 000 light-years away. <br /> <br />The planet, with a mass similar to Saturn, orbits the two stars at a distance of roughly 480 million kilometres. <br /> <br />The two red dwarf stars are a mere 11 million kilometres apart. <br /> <br />The artist's impression is based on observations made with Hubble that helped astronomers confirm the existence of a planet orbiting <br /> <br />The two stars in the system. <br /> <br />The system is too far away for Hubble to take an image of the planet. Instead, its presence was inferred from gravitational microlensing. <br /> <br />This phenomenon occurs when the gravity of a foreground star bends and amplifies the light of a background star that momentarily aligns with it. <br /> <br />The particular character of the light magnification can reveal clues to the nature of the foreground star and any associated planets. <br /> <br />The Hubble observations represent the first time such a three-body system has been confirmed using the gravitational microlensing technique. <br /> <br />Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI) <br /> <br />The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA. <br /> <br />http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1619
