November 14, 2008 - Honolulu Star Bulletin
A "planet family" has been discovered for the first time around a parent star like the sun by the Gemini and Keck observatories on Mauna Kea.
"To actually see them there is significant to understand better how solar systems like our own formed, and other places in the galaxy," Gemini spokesman Peter Michaud said. "It's a major step forward in understanding how we got here and how other possible planetary systems formed and are forming throughout the universe."
The observatories announced what they called a historic discovery of a planetary "first family" yesterday in Science Express, the online version of the journal Science. The star, called HR 8799, is about 130 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus.
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