Astronomers using the Hubble space telescope have managed to get the first pictures of a planet outside our solar system.

This follows eight years and repeated photographs of a nearby star in hopes of discovering new planets.

The pictures show four likely planets that appear as specks of white. All are trillions of miles away.

It's unlikely that human beings live on them, but the discovery marks the first step to find exoplanets. These are planets that don't circle our sun, but which are similar to the Earth.

In the past 13 years, scientists have discovered more than 300 planets outside our solar system, but they have done so indirectly, by measuring changes in gravity, speed or light around stars.