But what is possible is to build many smaller dishes spaced a long way from one another, and to link them with clever computer algorithms so that they behave as if they were a single giant telescope.

ECONOMIST: The Square Kilometre Array: Divide and rule | The

The light from the planet was detected in infrared form by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which also detected the first light from another exoplanet, the gas giant HD 209458 b.

FORBES: NASA Detects The Light Of A 'Super-Earth'

Now, an international team of astronomers has trained the Fermi space-based gamma ray telescope on V407 Cygni, a "binary" system comprising a white dwarf star and a red giant companion, 9, 000 light-years away.

BBC: Gamma rays from nova explosion surprise astronomers