First Ever Image of Alien Planet Captured

Astronomers believe they have captured the first picture of an alien planet in orbit around a star that is similar to our own Sun, called 1RXS J160929.1-210524, which is similar in mass to the Sun, but is much younger.. Located around 500 light-years from Earth, the planet in the snapshot is around eight times bigger than Jupiter, the biggest in our solar system and lies more than ten times further from its star than the sun does from Neptune.

The work that led to this discovery is part of a survey of more than 85 stars in the Upper Scorpius association, a group of young stars formed about 5 million years ago.  It uses the Gemini telescope's high-resolution adaptive optics capabilities to determine the different types of companions that can form around young stars: stars, brown dwarfs, or planetary mass objects. “This discovery certainly has us looking forward to what other surprises nature has in stock for us,” said Marten van Kerkwijk,
Professor of Astronomy at the University of Toronto.

Even though the likelihood of a chance alignment between such an object and a similarly young star is thought to be small, it will take up to two years to verify that the star and its likely planet are moving through space together.

“This is the first time we have directly seen a planetary mass object in a likely orbit around a star like our Sun,” said David Lafrenière, lead author of a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters and also posted online. “If we confirm that this object is indeed gravitationally tied to the star, it will be a major step forward.”

Until now, the only planet-like bodies that have been directly imaged outside of the solar system are either free-floating in space (i.e. not found around a star), or orbit brown dwarfs, which are dim and make it easier to detect planetary-mass companions.

The existence of a planetary-mass companion so far from its parent star comes as a surprise, and poses a challenge to theoretical models of star and planet formation. "This discovery is yet another reminder of the truly remarkable diversity of worlds out there, and it's a strong hint that nature may have more than one mechanism for producing planetary mass companions to normal stars,” said Ray Jayawardhana, team member and author of a forthcoming book on extrasolar planets entitled Worlds Beyond.

The team’s Gemini observations took advantage of adaptive optics technology to dramatically reduce distortions caused by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere. The near-infrared images and spectra of the suspected planetary object indicate that it is too cool to be a star or even a more massive brown dwarf, and that it is young. Taken together, such findings confirm that it is a very young, very low-mass object at roughly the same distance from Earth as the star.

Even though the likelihood of a chance alignment between such an object and a similarly young star is rather small, it will take up to two years to verify that the star and its likely planet are moving through space together. “Of course it would be premature to say that the object is definitely orbiting this star, but the evidence is extremely compelling. This will be a very intensely studied object for the next few years!” said Lafrenière. 

The Jupiter-sized body has an estimated temperature of about 1800 Kelvin (about 1500ºC), much hotter than our own Jupiter, which has a temperature of about 160 Kelvin (-110ºC), and its likely host is a young star of type K7 with an estimated mass of about 85% that of the Sun.

The work that led to this discovery is part of a survey of more than 85 stars in the Upper Scorpius association, a group of young stars formed about 5 million years ago.  It uses the Gemini telescope's high-resolution adaptive optics capabilities to determine the different types of companions that can form around young stars: stars, brown dwarfs, or planetary mass objects. “This discovery certainly has us looking forward to what other surprises nature has in stock for us,” said Van Kerkwijk.

Posted by Casey Kazan from Gemini materials.

Related Galaxy posts:

Google Joins MIT in Search for Earth-like Planets
NASA's "New Worlds Observer" Will be Able to Spot Oceans, Continents and Clouds on Small Rocky Planets
MIT Asks: How Would Extraterrestrial Astronomers Study Earth?
"The Great Silence" -A Galaxy Insight
Harvard-Smithsonian Scientists Zero In On Key Sign of Habitable Worlds
Cruising the Goldilocks Zone -The Search for Super Earths
Dead Zones in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
GAIA -Mapping the Family Tree of the Milky Way

http://www.gemini.edu/sunstarplanet

Comments

[terry]

very intriging!i wonder if there is inteligent life on it?....

[jer35mx]

¿1500? and is far as Pluton of its star, vulcanic is notan on option due the size, maybe is a star trapped in the gravitational of the other star. But if it's a planet is as minimum intriguing as is posted before.

[EvilCosmicMonkey from Knoxville]

A very large gas giant, larger than Jupiter. That's intriguing. IF life can develop on our gas giants, it could develop out there, too, or maybe likewise if it has moons.

We won't know until we get there or send a probe there, I'm afraid.