"I've been dreaming about astronomy since my childhood ... so this was a childhood dream come true."

His dream would capture three planets as it turned out.

Seeing the planets? That took a bit more work.

And while there have been "exoplanet" sightings reported in the literature – another is reported in this same Science edition – Marois says his images are the clearest and definitely the first to show a distant solar system.

"So for sure having direct observations is a very big thing."