November 14, 2008 -- Astronomers have taken the first pictures of planets orbiting a distant star using telescopes on the Hawaiian island of Mauna Kea.

Three giant planets were snapped around a star known as HR 8799 in the constellation of Pegasus, 130 light years from Earth. Until now, images of "exoplanets" beyond our solar system have only been taken from space, or inferred indirectly.

"We've been trying to image planets for eight years with no luck and now we have pictures of three planets at once, " said Bruce Macintosh an astrophysicist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The planets are several times the mass of Jupiter.

The astronomers used the Keck and Gemini telescopes on the island, according to a study in the journal Science. In the same issue, scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope reveal pictures of another planet, called Fomalhaut b, 25 light years from Earth in the constellation of Piscis Australis. It is the first exoplanet to be discovered purely visually.

"I nearly had a heart attack at the end of May when I confirmed that Fomalhaut b orbits its parent star," said astronomer Paul Kalas at the University of California, Berkeley. "It's a profound and overwhelming experience to lay eyes on a planet never before seen."

None of the planets are likely to host life, but astronomers believe at least some of the solar systems also have smaller, rocky planets like Mars or Earth that are much harder to spot.