Now, this is not 100% confirmed, but it does look like we've got another image of an extrasolar planet: this one (if real) is orbiting the star β Pictoris, a very young star 70 light-years away from us.
The potential discovery comes from a new analysis of images taken in 2003 with ESO's Very Large Telescope. The images were processed to subtract from them the light coming directly from the star, allowing scientists to see objects that are around it; this showed a very distinct point of light very close to the star and in the same plane as the dust ring that surrounds it, but we can't still rule out the possibility that this is a background or foreground object instead of something actually in the neighbourhood of the star.
If this is a real planet, it is closer to its star than the other ones imaged previously, being approximately as far from it as Saturn is from the Sun; it would be a very large planet, though, about eight times as massive as Jupiter.
New observations might prove this object to be a planet (by showing its movement around the star, presumably), so we will definitely hear more about β Pictoris in the future. More details at the ESO press release.
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