Astronomers, for the first time in history, managed to detect light coming from planets outside our solar system.

Two separate research teams of Goddard Space Flight Center and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered planets HD 209458b and TrES-1, orbiting around their stars. The news was announced yesterday.

The scientists, with the help of NASA’s infrared Spitzer Space Telescope, managed to single out the planet’s contribution to the glow while it passed behind its star. The researchers found out that the TrES-1 reaches about 1,450 degrees Fahrenheit and has a reflectivity of only 31 percent, which means that it absorbs the majority of light that falls on it from its nearby star. HD 209458b, instead, reaches 1,574 degrees Fahrenheit.

Still, despite all the human efforts, the technical means failed to detect "rocky" planets as small as Earth. NASA has planned special missions to reach the goal, perhaps in 10 years.