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Dec. 8, 2021
Image of the most massive planet-hosting star pair observed to date
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) has captured an image of a planet orbiting b Centauri, a two-star system that can be seen with the naked eye. This is the hottest and most massive planet-hosting star system found to date, and the planet was spotted orbiting it at 100 times the distance Jupiter orbits the Sun. Some astronomers believed planets could not exist around stars this massive and this hot — until now.
Image of the most massive planet-hosting star pair observed to date (with annotations)
“Finding a planet around b Centauri was very exciting since it completely changes the picture about massive stars as planet hosts,” explains Markus Janson, an astronomer at Stockholm University, Sweden and first author of the new study published online today in Nature.
Artist impression showing b Centauri and its giant planet b Centauri b
Located approximately 325 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus, the b Centauri two-star system (also known as HIP 71865) has at least six times the mass of the Sun, making it by far the most massive system around which a planet has been confirmed. Until now, no planets had been spotted around a star more than three times as massive as the Sun.
Most massive stars are also very hot, and this system is no exception: its main star is a so-called B-type star that is over three times as hot as the Sun. Owing to its intense temperature, it emits large amounts of ultraviolet and X-ray radiation.
Location of b Centauri in the constellation of Centaurus
The large mass and the heat from this type of star have a strong impact on the surrounding gas, that should work against planet formation. In particular, the hotter a star is, the more high-energy radiation it produces, which causes the surrounding material to evaporate faster. “B-type stars are generally considered as quite destructive and dangerous environments, so it was believed that it should be exceedingly difficult to form large planets around them,” Janson says.
But the new discovery shows planets can in fact form in such severe star systems. “The planet in b Centauri is an alien world in an environment that is completely different from what we experience here on Earth and in our Solar System,” explains co-author Gayathri Viswanath, a PhD student at Stockholm University. “It’s a harsh environment, dominated by extreme radiation, where everything is on a gigantic scale: the stars are bigger, the planet is bigger, the distances are bigger.”
Surprise planet found around extreme star pair (ESOcast 247 Light)
Indeed, the planet discovered, named b Centauri (AB)b or b Centauri b, is also extreme. It is 10 times as massive as Jupiter, making it one of the most massive planets ever found. Moreover, it moves around the star system in one of the widest orbits yet discovered, at a distance a staggering 100 times greater than the distance of Jupiter from the Sun. This large distance from the central pair of stars could be key to the planet’s survival.
These results were made possible thanks to the sophisticated Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument (SPHERE) mounted on ESO’s VLT in Chile. SPHERE has successfully imaged several planets orbiting stars other than the Sun before, including taking the first ever-image of two planets orbiting a Sun-like star.
A “fly to” b Centauri
However, SPHERE was not the first instrument to image this planet. As part of their study, the team looked into archival data on the b Centauri system and discovered that the planet had actually been imaged more than 20 years ago by the ESO 3.6-m telescope, though it was not recognised as a planet at the time.
With ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), due to start observations later this decade, and with upgrades to the VLT, astronomers may be able to unveil more about this planet’s formation and features. “It will be an intriguing task to try to figure out how it might have formed, which is a mystery at the moment,” concludes Janson.
More information:
This research was presented in a paper tilted "A wide-orbit giant planet in the high-mass b Centauri binary system" to appear in Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04124-8).
The team is composed of Markus Janson (Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Sweden [SU]), Raffaele Gratton (INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Italy [INAF-Padova]), Laetitia Rodet (Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, USA), Arthur Vigan (Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CNES, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, France [LAM]), Mickaël Bonnefoy (Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Institute for Planetary sciences and Astrophysics, France [IPAG] and LAM), Philippe Delorme (IPAG), Eric E. Mamajek (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, USA [JPL]), Sabine Reffert (Landessternwarte, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany [ZAH]), Lukas Stock (ZAH and IPAG), Gabriel-Dominique Marleau (Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Universität Tübingen, Germany; Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bern, Switzerland [UNIBE]; Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany), Maud Langlois (Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon [CRAL], CNRS, Université Lyon, France), Gaël Chauvin (Unidad Mixta Internacional Franco-Chilena de Astronomía, CNRS/INSU and Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile, and Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics, Grenoble, France), Silvano Desidera (INAF-Padova), Simon Ringqvist (SU), Lucio Mayer (Center for Theoretical Physics and Cosmology, Institute for Computational Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland [CTAC]), Gayathri Viswanath (SU), Vito Squicciarini (INAF-Padova, Department of Physics and Astronomy “Galileo Galilei”, University of Padova, Italy), Michael R. Meyer (Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, USA), Matthias Samland (SU and MPIA), Simon Petrus (IPAG), Ravit Helled (CTAC), Matthew A. Kenworthy (Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Netherlands), Sascha P. Quanz (ETH Zurich, Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Switzerland [ETH Zurich]), Beth Biller (Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Institute for Astronomy, Royal Observatory, University of Edinburgh, UK), Thomas Henning (MPIA), Dino Mesa (INAF-Padova), Natalia Engler (ETH Zurich), Joseph C. Carson (College of Charleston, Department of Physics & Astronomy, USA).
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration in astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates APEX and ALMA on Chajnantor, two facilities that observe the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.
Links:
Research paper: https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso2118/eso2118a.pdf
Photos of the VLT: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/
ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT): https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/
Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument (SPHERE): https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/vlt-instr/sphere/
Find out more about ESO's Extremely Large Telescope: https://elt.eso.org/
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Images Credits: ESO/Janson et al./ESO/L. Calçada/ESO, IAU and Sky & Telescope/Videos Credits: ESO/Directed by: Herbert Zodet and Martin Wallner/Editing: Herbert Zodet/Web and technical support: Gurvan Bazin and Raquel Yumi Shida/Written by: Juliet Hannay and Giulio Mazzolo/Music: Stellardrone — Milky Way/Footage and photos: ESO, Janson et al., L. Calçada, Space Engine (spaceengine.org), Daniele Gasparri (www.astroatacama.com) and C. Malin (christophmalin.com)/Scientific consultants: Paola Amico and Mariya Lyubenova/ESO/L.Calçada/spaceengine.org/Text Credits: ESO/Bárbara Ferreira/Leiden Observatory, Leiden University/Matthew Kenworthy/Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Institute for Astronomy, Royal Observatory, University of Edinburgh/Beth Biller/ETH Zurich, Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics/Sascha Quanz/INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova/Raffaele Gratton/Unidad Mixta Internacional Franco-Chilena de Astronomía, Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, and Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble/Gaël Chauvin/Max Planck Institute for Astronomy/Matthias Samland/Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University/Gayathri Viswanath/Markus Janson.
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