Astronomers using the Very Large Telescope were able to take a picture of an exoplanet that revolves around the star AF Leporis. The images of the planet were taken by two teams of scientists using the telescope's SPHERE instrument, according to the European Southern Observatory..

After that, as two independent groups of astronomers turned the Very Large Telescope to a star, they were able to get pictures of the planet that orbits it.. Both teams used the SPHERE tool, which uses adaptive optics to correct blurring caused by atmospheric turbulence and also blocks the light from the star with a special mask, revealing the planet next to it..

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The researchers found that the object is only a few times as massive as Jupiter, making it the lightest exoplanet discovered using a combination of astrometric measurements and direct imaging..

The AF Leporis system is similar to the Solar. The mass, size and temperature of a star resemble those of the sun, and the planet revolves around it at a distance similar to the distance between Saturn and our star. The system also contains a debris belt with characteristics similar to the Kuiper belt..

The system is only 24 million years old, about 200 times younger than the solar system.. Observations of it may shed light on how our system was formed..

Earlier, an international team of scientists announced the discovery of an Earth-like exoplanet, which is located at a distance of 72 light-years from us.. She received the designation K2-415b.