Color-enhanced image of the star GQ Lup (A) and companion (B) (University of Jena/ESO).

(PLANETQUEST) -- A team of European astronomers has released an image of what may be an extrasolar planet obiting within the dusty disc surrounding a young star. The estimated mass of the substellar companion is between one and 42 times that of Jupiter. It is located about twice as far from the star as Jupiter is from the Sun and takes about 1,200 years to complete a single orbit.

The star, GQ Lupi, is located in the constellation Lupus and belongs to a class known as T Tauris -- very young, lightweight stars at an intermediate stage prior to becoming main sequence stars like our Sun. Whether the companion object is a planet or some other object, such as a brown dwarf, depends on its mass. The team based its estimated mass of the object by comparing it with theoretical models, which they acknowledge are unreliable when applied to such a young system.

"There's no question that there's an object out there," said Dr. Rachel Akeson, an astronomer at the Michelson Science Center in Pasadena who has studied T Tauri stars. "The question is - what is the object?"

Because of the distance from us, and the object's long orbital period, it will be difficult to confirm or deny its status anytime soon.

The image was obtained using an infrared camera on the Very Large Telescope in Chile. A paper announcing the discovery has been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. More information is available on the website of the Astrophysical Institute and University of Jena Observatory.