A “;planet family”; has been discovered for the first time around a parent star like the sun by the Gemini and Keck observatories on Mauna Kea.

“;To actually see them there is significant to understand better how solar systems like our own formed, and other places in the galaxy,”; Gemini spokesman Peter Michaud said. “;It's a major step forward in understanding how we got here and how other possible planetary systems formed and are forming throughout the universe.”;

The observatories announced what they called a historic discovery of a planetary “;first family”; yesterday in Science Express, the online version of the journal Science. The star, called HR 8799, is about 130 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus.

Another team, led by Paul Kalas of the University of California, Berkeley, using the Hubble Space Telescope, found a planet orbiting the star Fomalhaut, only 25 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Piscis Austrinus.

The four planets are gas giants like Jupiter, not terrestrial planets like Earth or Mars, so are not considered likely candidates for water-based life.

Gemini images led to the initial discovery of two planets in the more distant system on Oct. 17, 2007. The discovery was confirmed and a third planet spotted orbiting even closer to the star with the Keck II telescope on Oct. 25, 2007, and this past summer, the scientists said.

Christian Marois of the National Research Council of Canada's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, leading an international team of scientists from the United States and United Kingdom, said it is the first time multiple planets have been directly imaged around a normal star outside of our solar system.

Explained Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, “;Until now, when astronomers discover new planets around a star, all we see are wiggly lines on a graph of the star's velocity or brightness. Now we have an actual picture showing the planets themselves, and that makes things very interesting.”;

The three planets “;are moving with and orbiting around”; a star with about 1.5 times the mass of the sun and five times brighter but much younger, the scientists said.

They said it is faintly visible, and people might see it with a small telescope or binoculars, or even with the naked eye if they live far from bright city lights.

The planets were seen using infrared observations, Michaud said. They were formed about 60 million years ago and are so young they are still quite warm, with heat left over from their formation, he said.

They are about seven to 10 times the mass of Jupiter, based on their brightness and colors at multiple wavelengths. Just as in our solar system, the giant planets orbit in the system's outer regions, the scientists said.

“;The furthest planet orbits just inside a disk of dusty debris, similar to that produced by the comets of the Kuiper Belt objects of our solar system (just beyond the orbit of Neptune at 30 times the Earth-sun distance).

“;In some ways this planetary system seems to be a scaled-up version of our solar system orbiting a larger and brighter star,”; the team said.

Macintosh said, “;After all these years, it's amazing to have a picture showing not one, but three planets. The discovery of the HR 8799 system is a crucial step on the road to the ultimate detection of another Earth.”;

Michaud said, “;We've found enough planets around stars to know it's not all that uncommon. ... There is very little doubt there are other planets around other stars. How common it is, the jury is still out on that.”;