First Direct Images of a New Solar System Like Ours
Friday, November 14, 2008
Gemini Observatory discovery image using the Altair adaptive optics system on the Gemini North telescope with the Near-Infrared Imager (NIRI). Image shows two of the three confirmed planets indicated as "b" and "c" on the image. "b" is the ~7 Jupiter-mass planet orbiting at about 70 AU, "c" is the ~10 Jupiter-mass planet orbiting the star at about 40 AU. Due to the brightness of the central star, it has been blocked and appears blank in this image to increase visibility of the planets. (Credit: Gemini Observatory)
Astronomers using the Gemini North telescope and W.M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea have received the first-ever direct images identifying a multi-planet system around a normal star.
The Gemini pictures allowed the international team to make the initial discovery of two of the planets in the confirmed planetary system with data obtained on October 17, 2007. Then, on October 25, 2007, and in the summer of 2008, the squad, led by Christian Marois of the National Research Council of Canada’s Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (Victoria B.C., Canada) and members from the U.S. and U.K., confirmed this discovery and found a third planet orbiting even closer to the star with images received at the Keck II telescope. In both cases, adaptive optics technology was used to correct in real-time for atmospheric turbulence to obtain these historical infrared pictures of an extra-solar multiple-planet system.
According Dr. Marois, this find is the first time we have directly imaged a family of planets around a normal star outside of our solar system. Team member Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories says, “Until now, when astronomers discover new planets around a star, all we see are sinuous lines on a graph of the star's velocity or brightness. Now we have an real picture showing the planets themselves, and that makes things very interesting.” The discovery article is printed in the November 13, 2008, issue of Science Express, an international weekly science journal.
Posted byParvez Ahmed at 3:40 AM
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