GQ Lupi b

Last updated
GQ Lupi b
Exoplanet Comparison GQ Lupi b.png
Size comparison of GQ Lupi b (at Neuhäuser et al. estimate) with Jupiter.
Discovery
Discovered by Neuhäuser et al.
Discovery site ESO's Paranal Observatory,
Chile
Discovery dateApril 2005
Imaged
Orbital characteristics
Star GQ Lupi
Physical characteristics
Mean radius
1.8 [1] RJ
Mass 1 – 36 [1] [2] MJ
Temperature 2650 ± 100, [2] (2050±350–2400) [3] K

    GQ Lupi b, or GQ Lupi B, [4] [5] is a possible extrasolar planet, brown dwarf or sub-brown dwarf orbiting the star GQ Lupi. Its discovery was announced in April 2005. Along with 2M1207b, this was one of the first extrasolar planet candidates to be directly imaged. The image was made with the European Southern Observatory's VLT telescope at the Paranal Observatory, Chile on June 25, 2004. [6]

    Contents

    VLT NACO image, taken in the Ks-band, of GQ Lupi. The feeble point of light to the right of the star is the newly found cold companion. It is 250 times fainter than the star itself and it located 0.73 arc second west. At the distance of GQ Lupi, this corresponds to a distance of roughly 100 AU. North is up and East is to the left. The Sub-Stellar Companion to GQ Lupi.jpg
    VLT NACO image, taken in the Ks-band, of GQ Lupi. The feeble point of light to the right of the star is the newly found cold companion. It is 250 times fainter than the star itself and it located 0.73 arc second west. At the distance of GQ Lupi, this corresponds to a distance of roughly 100 AU. North is up and East is to the left.

    GQ Lupi b has a spectral type between M6 and L0, corresponding to a temperature between 2,050 and 2,650 kelvins. [2] Located at a projected distance of about 100 AU from its companion star, giving it an orbital period of perhaps about 1,200 years, it is believed to be several times more massive than Jupiter. Because the theoretical models which are used to predict planetary masses for objects in young star systems like GQ Lupi b are still tentative, the mass cannot be precisely specified — models place GQ Lupi b's mass anywhere between a few Jupiter masses and 36 Jupiter masses. [2] At the highest end of this range, GQ Lupi b could be classified as a small brown dwarf, but at the lowest end of this range, it could be classified as an extremely large Jupiter-like exoplanet rather than a brown dwarf.

    If classified as an exoplanet, with a maximum radius of 6.5 times that of Jupiter (RJ) (or 930,000 km in diameter), this would make GQ Lupi b one of largest exoplanets discovered, although the size of the planet is shrinking as it evolves.[ citation needed ]

    As of 2006, the International Astronomical Union Working Group on Extrasolar Planets described GQ Lupi b as a "possible planetary-mass companion to a young star." [7] GQ Lupi b is listed as a "confirmed planet" as of 2020. [8]

    See also

    Related Research Articles

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Exoplanet</span> Planet outside the Solar System

    An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, initially detected in 1988, was confirmed in 2003. As of 1 November 2022, there are 5,246 confirmed exoplanets in 3,875 planetary systems, with 842 systems having more than one planet.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">2M1207</span> Brown dwarf in the constellation Centaurus

    2M1207, 2M1207A or 2MASSW J12073346–3932539 is a brown dwarf located in the constellation Centaurus; a companion object, 2M1207b, may be the first extrasolar planetary-mass companion to be directly imaged, and is the first discovered orbiting a brown dwarf.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">OGLE-TR-10b</span> Hot Jupiter orbiting OGLE-TR-10

    OGLE-TR-10b is an extrasolar planet orbiting the star OGLE-TR-10.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">GQ Lupi</span> Star in the constellation of Lupus

    GQ Lupi is a T Tauri variable star approximately 495 light-years away in the constellation of Lupus. The star is young and has about 70% of the Sun's mass.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">2M1207b</span> Planetary-mass object orbiting the brown dwarf 2M1207

    2M1207b is a planetary-mass object orbiting the brown dwarf 2M1207, in the constellation Centaurus, approximately 170 light-years from Earth. It is one of the first candidate exoplanets to be directly observed. It was discovered in April 2004 by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile by a team from the European Southern Observatory led by Gaël Chauvin. It is believed to be from 3 to 10 times the mass of Jupiter and may orbit 2M1207 at a distance roughly as far from the brown dwarf as Pluto is from the Sun.

    HD 38529 is a binary star approximately 138 light-years away in the constellation of Orion.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">AB Pictoris</span> Star in the constellation Pictor

    AB Pictoris is a K-type star, approximately 163 light-years away in the constellation of Pictor. It has been identified as a member of the young Tucana–Horologium association. The star has also been classified as a BY Draconis variable. In 2005 it was announced that an astronomical object had been imaged in 2003 and 2004 close to and apparently in orbit around the star. Its mass suggests that it is at the borderline between being a brown dwarf or a planet.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">16 Cygni Bb</span> Extrasolar planet

    16 Cygni Bb or HD 186427 b is an extrasolar planet approximately 69 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. The planet was discovered orbiting the Sun-like star 16 Cygni B, one of two solar-mass (M) components of the triple star system 16 Cygni in 1996. It orbits its star once every 799 days and was the first eccentric Jupiter and planet in a double star system to be discovered. The planet is abundant in lithium.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Methods of detecting exoplanets</span> Overview of methods of detecting exoplanets

    Any planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. For example, a star like the Sun is about a billion times as bright as the reflected light from any of the planets orbiting it. In addition to the intrinsic difficulty of detecting such a faint light source, the light from the parent star causes a glare that washes it out. For those reasons, very few of the exoplanets reported as of April 2014 have been observed directly, with even fewer being resolved from their host star.

    Gliese 86 is a K-type main-sequence star approximately 35 light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. It has been confirmed that a white dwarf orbits the primary star. In 1998 the European Southern Observatory announced that an extrasolar planet was orbiting the star.

    This page describes exoplanet orbital and physical parameters.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Gliese 3021 b</span> Extrasolar planet in the constrellation Hydrus

    Gliese 3021 b, also known as GJ 3021 b or HD 1237 b, is an extrasolar planet approximately 57 light-years away, orbiting its bright G-dwarf parent star in the Southern constellation of Hydrus. It was discovered with the Swiss Euler Telescope at the Chilean La Silla Observatory in 2000.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Gliese 86 b</span> Jovian planet orbiting Gliese 86 A

    Gliese 86 b, sometimes referred to as Gliese 86 A b and/or shortened to Gl 86 b, is an extrasolar planet approximately 35 light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. The planet was discovered orbiting a K-type main-sequence star by French scientists in November 1998. The planet orbits very close to the star, completing an orbit in 15.78 days.

    HD 210277 b is an extrasolar planet orbiting the star HD 210277. It was discovered in September 1998 by the California and Carnegie Planet Search team using the highly successful radial velocity method. The planet is at least 24% more massive than Jupiter. The mean distance of the planet from the star is slightly more than Earth's distance from the Sun. However, the orbit is very eccentric, so at periastron this distance is almost halved, and at apastron it is as distant as Mars is from the Sun.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">CoRoT-3b</span> Celestial body orbiting CoRoT-3

    CoRoT-3b is a brown dwarf or massive extrasolar planet with a mass 21.66 times that of Jupiter. The object orbits an F-type star in the constellation of Aquila. The orbit is circular and takes 4.2568 days to complete. It was discovered by the French-led CoRoT mission which detected the dimming of the parent star's light as CoRoT-3b passes in front of it.

    1RXS J160929.1−210524 is a pre-main-sequence star approximately 456 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Beta Pictoris b</span> Super Jupiter orbiting Beta Pictoris

    Beta Pictoris b (abbreviated as β Pic b) is an exoplanet orbiting the young debris disk A-type main sequence star Beta Pictoris located approximately 63 light-years (19.4 parsecs, or 6×1014 km) away from Earth in the constellation of Pictor. It has a mass around 13 Jupiter masses and a radius around 46% larger than Jupiter's. It orbits at 9 AU from Beta Pictoris, which is about 3.5 times farther than the orbit of Beta Pictoris c. It orbits close to the plane of the debris disk orbiting the star, with a low eccentricity and a period of 20–21 years.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Discoveries of exoplanets</span> Detecting planets located outside the Solar System

    An exoplanet is a planet located outside the Solar System. The first evidence of an exoplanet was noted as early as 1917, but was not recognized as such until 2016; no planet discovery has yet come from that evidence. What turned out to be the first detection of an exoplanet was published among a list of possible candidates in 1988, though not confirmed until 2003. The first confirmed detection came in 1992, with the discovery of terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. The first confirmation of an exoplanet orbiting a main-sequence star was made in 1995, when a giant planet was found in a four-day orbit around the nearby star 51 Pegasi. Some exoplanets have been imaged directly by telescopes, but the vast majority have been detected through indirect methods, such as the transit method and the radial-velocity method. As of 1 November 2022, there are 5,246 confirmed exoplanets in 3,875 planetary systems, with 842 systems having more than one planet. This is a list of the most notable discoveries.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Spectro-Polarimetric High-Contrast Exoplanet Research</span>

    Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (VLT-SPHERE) is an adaptive optics system and coronagraphic facility at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). It provides direct imaging as well as spectroscopic and polarimetric characterization of exoplanet systems. The instrument operates in the visible and near infrared, achieving, albeit over a limited field of view, superior image quality and contrast for bright targets.

    References

    1. 1 2 "GQ Lup b". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
    2. 1 2 3 4 Astrometric and photometric monitoring of GQ Lupi and its sub-stellar companion, Ralph Neuhäuser, Markus Mugrauer, Andreas Seifahrt, Tobias Schmidt, and Nikolaus Vogt, Astronomy and Astrophysics484, #1 (2008), pp. 281–291. doi : 10.1051/0004-6361:20078493. Bibcode : 2008A&A...484..281N
    3. Zhou, Yifan; Herczeg, Gregory J; Kraus, Adam L; Metchev, Stanimir; Cruz, Kelle L (2014). "Accretion onto Planetary Mass Companions of Low-mass Young Stars". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 783 (1): L17. arXiv: 1401.6545 . Bibcode:2014ApJ...783L..17Z. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/783/1/L17. S2CID   119255447.
    4. Alcalá, J. M.; et al. (28 February 2020). "2MASS J15491331-3539118: a new low-mass wide companion of the GQ Lup system". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 635: L1. arXiv: 2001.10879 . Bibcode:2020A&A...635L...1A. doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/201937309 .
    5. Stolker, Tomas; Haffert, Sebastiaan Y.; Kesseli, Aurora Y.; van Holstein, Rob G.; Aoyama, Yuhiko; Brinchmann, Jarle; Cugno, Gabriele; Girard, Julien H.; Marleau, Gabriel-Dominique; Cugno, Gabriele; Meyer, Michael R.; Milli, Julien; Quanz, Sascha P.; Snellen, Ignas A. G.; Todorov, Kamen O. (2021). "Characterizing the Protolunar Disk of the Accreting Companion GQ Lupi B". The Astronomical Journal. 162 (6): 286. arXiv: 2110.04307 . Bibcode:2021AJ....162..286S. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac2c7f. S2CID   238582841.
    6. Is this a Brown Dwarf or an Exoplanet? New Young Sub-stellar Companion Imaged with the VLT Archived 2008-05-07 at the Wayback Machine , ESO Press Release 09/05, April 7, 2005. Accessed on line June 13, 2008.
    7. Lists of Extrasolar Planets Archived 2013-10-29 at the Wayback Machine , IAU Working Group on Extrasolar Planets, August 28, 2006. Accessed on line June 13, 2008.
    8. openexoplanetcatalogue.com GQ Lup

    Commons-logo.svg Media related to GQ Lupi b at Wikimedia Commons