By going over old images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have found a photo of an exoplanet snapped ten years before it was officially "discovered." It's more than a curiosity. First, the find shows Hubble can be used to find planets beyond the Solar System. Second, having the image confirms the exoplanet does in fact orbit that star.
Hubble got the image of the planet when it was taking a coronagraph of the star. To observe a star's corona-- which is roughly its outer atmosphere-- the telescope blocks the body of the bright star. Without that glare, the corona can be studied-- and, it turns out, planets can be found. Hubble has used that technique on around 200 stars. Astronomers now plan to go over that data again in hopes of finding more exoplanets.
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