[throwaway_yy2Di]

Here's a better answer on /r/askscience:

    Can we directly image the planet from earth?

    1. "The planet/star contrast is 10^-7 " This basically means
    for every 10,000,000 photons from the star, we would measure
    ~ one from the planet.
    
    2. "Current instrumentation using adaptive optics and
    coronography on 10 m class telescopes (like Sphere on VLT or
    Gemini Planetary Imager) aims at achieving a contrast of
    10^-6 to 10^-7 at an angular resolution of 100-200 mas"
    
    3. "The planet has a separation of 38 mas".
    
    4. Therefore with the best planet imagers we cannot
    currently directly image the planet. Our best hope is the
    E-ELT which should have first light in 2024.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/4zdkra/askscien...