Posthuman Blues

Object 230 light years away could well be first planet directly seen outside solar system

"But if, in time, the object is unquestionably identified as a planet, the discovery would mark a watershed in the history of science -- one of the biggest since Galileo spotted the moons of Jupiter through a tabletop telescope 394 years ago. For the first time, humans would have directly observed a planet orbiting a star or starlike body rather than indirectly inferring its existence based on its gravitational pull on that body."