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Line 7: Currently, the direct detection of [[extrasolar planets]] (or exoplanets) is extremely difficult. This is primarily due to: Exoplanets ~~appear~~appearing extremely close to their host stars when observed at astronomical distances. Even the closest of stars are several [[light years]] away. This means that while looking for exoplanets, one would typically be observing very small angles from the star, on the order of several tens of [[milli]]-[[arcseconds]]. Angles this small are impossible to resolve from the ground due to [[astronomical seeing]]. Exoplanets ~~are~~being extremely dim compared to their host stars. Typically, the star will be approximately a billion times brighter than the orbiting planet. This makes it nearly impossible to see planets against the star's glare. The difficulty of observing such a dim planet so close to a bright star is the obstacle that has prevented astronomers from directly photographing exoplanets. To date, only a handful of exoplanets have been photographed.<ref>{{cite web\| date=2007-11-27 \| url=http://exoplanet.eu/catalog-imaging.php\| title=The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia\| publisher=Planetary Society\| access-date=2008-01-24}}</ref> The first exoplanet to be photographed, [[2M1207b]], is in orbit around a star called [[2M1207]]. Astronomers were only able to photograph this planet because it is a very unusual planet that is very far from its host star, approximately 55 [[astronomical units]] (about twice the distance of [[Neptune]]). Furthermore, the planet is orbiting a very dim star, known as a [[brown dwarf]].

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