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Title:
Optical Images of an Exosolar Planet 25 Light-Years from Earth
Authors:
Kalas, Paul; Graham, James R.; Chiang, Eugene; Fitzgerald, Michael P.; Clampin, Mark; Kite, Edwin S.; Stapelfeldt, Karl; Marois, Christian; Krist, John
Affiliation:
AA(Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA), AB(Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA), AC(Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA), AD(Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Science, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551, USA), AE(Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA), AF(Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA), AG(MS 183-900, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA), AH(Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics, Victoria, British Columbia V9E 2E7, Canada.), AI(MS 183-900, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA)
Publication:
Science, Volume 322, Issue 5906, pp. 1345- (2008). (Sci Homepage)
Publication Date:
11/2008
Category:
ASTRONOMY
Origin:
SCIENCE
DOI:
10.1126/science.1166609
Bibliographic Code:
2008Sci...322.1345K

Abstract

Fomalhaut, a bright star 7.7 parsecs (25 light-years) from Earth, harbors a belt of cold dust with a structure consistent with gravitational sculpting by an orbiting planet. Here, we present optical observations of an exoplanet candidate, Fomalhaut b. Fomalhaut b lies about 119 astronomical units (AU) from the star and 18 AU of the dust belt, matching predictions of its location. Hubble Space Telescope observations separated by 1.73 years reveal counterclockwise orbital motion. Dynamical models of the interaction between the planet and the belt indicate that the planet’s mass is at most three times that of Jupiter; a higher mass would lead to gravitational disruption of the belt, matching predictions of its location. The flux detected at 0.8 μm is also consistent with that of a planet with mass no greater than a few times that of Jupiter. The brightness at 0.6 μm and the lack of detection at longer wavelengths suggest that the detected flux may include starlight reflected off a circumplanetary disk, with dimension comparable to the orbits of the Galilean satellites. We also observe variability of unknown origin at 0.6 μm.
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