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In 2008, Hubble astronomers

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announced the discovery of a new exoplanet, one

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orbiting the nearby star Fomalhaut. Dubbed

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"Fomalhaut b," the new world orbited inside a ring of dusty

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debris and was claimed as the first exoplanet directly observed in

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visible light. Recently,

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several teams of astronomers have questioned that Fomalhaut b is a

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planet at all. The most damaging study, in early

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2012, was the failure to detect the young planet's heat.

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Fomalhaut b.....was gone.

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Now, it's back.

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A new analysis of 2004 and

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2006 images taken by Hubble brings Fomalhaut b

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back to planetary status and suggests that it may be a rare type

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of exoplanet. The object seems to be moving at the right

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speed and direction to explain the ring's properties, including its

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position offset from the star. A dust cloud wouldn't survive

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long on its own, unless it was anchored to a planet. And the

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failure to detect Fomalhaut b in the infrared merely indicates

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that the planet is smaller than originally thought, less than twice

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Jupiter's mass. Another team used Hubble to observe the system

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again this year, and those results are expected to be published

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soon. So keep your children close, Fomalhaut b,

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the zombie planet, roams around its host

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star once more.