Astronomers have announced the discovery of the lightest planet ever detected outside our Solar System

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8008683.stm

 This articl links the E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) project to be completed in 2016 which would be capable of actually visibly seeing a planet instead of just watching the behavior of the planet circling a star. Too bad they didn't get funding for the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope which would have been able to have seen details down to earth sized planets outside our solar system. When you think that a country can spend 700 billion dollars for the economy, 1.6 billion Euros doesn't sound so much anymore.