Huge astronomy news! For the first time EVER, galaxy researchers have taken pictures of planets orbiting a sun-star, much like our own. The first, taken by the much beloved Hubble Telescope, shows a planet orbiting the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis. The second picture, snapped by upstaging Hawaiian observatories Gemini and Keck, shows two young planets orbiting a completely different star located 130 light-years from us! Take that Hubble! But I warn you—like the ultrasounds your friends show you of their three-month old fetus—these pictures wow mostly because of what they are, not because of what they look like.

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Thanks to the distortion-reducing power of the ALTAIR adaptive optics system on the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, three University of Toronto scientists were able to capture images of the star 1RXS J160929.1-210524 from a distance of about 500 light years away. The image is believed to be the first ever of a planet in an alien solar system around a sun-like star. The discovery is made even more significant because the "planet" lies a tremendous distance away from its parent star—challenging currently accepted theories about star and planet formation. It will take up to 2 years of research to determine whether or not this object is, in fact, tied to the star by gravity. [Gemini via ScienceNews via DVICE]

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Hey Pig Pen. Yeah, you, the Mars Spirit Rover with the red Martian dust all over your solar panels. We're filing a post on a bathtub later today, so why don't you take the hint and use one? What's that? You're millions of miles away and potable water may or may not be somewhere on the planet you're currently exploring? Oh, well, in that case, pray for another wind storm or something, because these filthy before and after pics mean only about 1/3 of the Sun's light is getting through to power your electronics. NASA's plea for a sensor-cleaning interstellar dust storm is after the break.

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These speakers are dubbed The Planets, and due to their unique design with chrome "omni spheres" positioned above the drivers, they deliver full 360-degree sound throughout the room they're placed in. The cabinets themselves also help deliver solid bass, according to some technical mumbo-jumbo: "The cabinets use a precision double-ported design on the bottom of the speaker. Aiming the double port at the floor instead of to the front or behind the speaker creates a quasi-acoustic lens with an omni pattern." But of course! Unlike most speakers with such highfalutin' design, these are actually relatively reasonably priced at $1,295 a pair. [Product Page via BornRich]

By Japanese manufacturer TakaraTomy, these $27 floating lamps resemble our own two favorite members of the Solar System, the Earth and its moon. Simple in design, the lamps are simply mylar balloons (like you'd see at a birthday party) with an LED at the bottom to make it glow. We'd love to see buy more durable version without the helium. Because the two extra tanks of gas are just going to tempt us into trading more brain cells for fleeting moments of funny speech. Product Page [via technabob]