{"id":22937,"date":"2023-02-20T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=22937"},"modified":"2023-02-20T08:00:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T08:00:28","slug":"international-researchers-capture-image-of-a-giant-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/science-mct\/international-researchers-capture-image-of-a-giant-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"International researchers join forces to capture image of a giant planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two international group of researchers, one including\u00a0Dr Mariangela Bonavita<\/a>\u00a0of the OU, have used the SPHERE planet-finder at the Very Large Telescope in Chile to capture images of a giant (Jovian) planet.<\/p>\n

The images are featured today as \u201cPicture of the Week\u201d<\/a> by the European Southern Observatory.<\/p>\n

The planet, that has a mass of about five times that of Jupiter, orbits the young star AF Lepus<\/em>, which is part of a group of stars moving together, the Beta Pictoris Moving Group<\/em>, 115 light-years from Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAF Lepus b is one of the smallest directly imaged planets\u201d says Dr. Dino Mesa, from the Astronomical Observatory of Padova, who led one of the teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also one of the closest\u201d adds Dr. Bonavita \u201cwith an orbital distance close to that of Saturn from the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an interesting system in many respects\u201d adds Dr. De Rosa from the European Southern Observatory, who led the second team of researchers who imaged AF Leporis b \u201cand since our images were obtained within days of one another, we decided to collaborate and announce this exciting results together. \u201c<\/p>\n

But why is AF Leporis so popular among the planet hunters?<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanets exert a gravitational tug on their host stars, perturbing their trajectory on the sky. explains Dr. Bonavita \u201cand these perturbations show as changes in the stellar position and motion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur teams found that the star AF Leporis exhibited such a disturbed trajectory\u201d adds Dr. Mesa \u201cby\u00a0 studying star catalogues from the European Space Agency\u2019s\u00a0Hipparcos<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Gaia<\/a>\u00a0satellites, two missions that over the years have accurately pinpointed the position and motion of stars in our galaxy using\u00a0astrometry.<\/a>\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call these accelerating stars, and <\/em>AF Leporis b is the smallest planet imaged around one of them. \u00a0<\/em>says Dr. Bonavita \u201cWe thought that observing the nearest youngest of those with SPHERE we would have a higher chance of detecting planets similar to Jupiter, and we were right!\u201d<\/p>\n

The AF Lepus system in bares striking resemblance with our Solar System and since, like the other members of the Beta Pictoris Moving Group, is only 24 million years old, studying it could help to shed light on how our own Solar System was formed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is not exactly an analogue of Jupiter in our own solar system \u201csays Dr. De Rosa \u201cit is closer than most of the other directly imaged planetary systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two publications detailing the discovery will be appear together in Astronomy & Astrophysics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis result is yet another proof that incredible results can be achieved combining data from ground and space-based facilities\u201d concludes Dr. Bonavita \u201cand I can\u2019t wait to see what the future holds.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Further information:<\/h3>\n