Discovery and spectroscopy of the young jovian planet 51 Eri b with the Gemini Planet Imager

By B. Macintosh, J. Graham, Travis S. Barman, R. J. Rosa, Q. Konopacky, M. Marley, C. Marois, E. Nielsen, L. Pueyo, Abhijit Rajan and 78 more. 2015

477 citations recorded by the source corpus.

An exoplanet extracted from the bright Direct imaging of Jupiter-like exoplanets around young stars provides a glimpse into how our solar system formed. The brightness of young stars requires the use of next-generation devices such as the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). Using the GPI, Macintosh et al. discovered a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a young star, 51 Eridani (see the Perspective by Mawet). The planet, 51 Eri b, has a methane signature and is probably the smallest exoplanet that has been directly imaged. These findings open the door to understanding solar system origins and herald the dawn of a new era in next-generation planetary imaging. Science, this issue p. 64; see also p. 39 The Gemini Planet Imager detects a Jupiter-like exoplanet orbiting the young star 51 Eridani. [Also see Perspective by Mawet] Directly detecting thermal emission from young extrasolar planets allows measurement of their atmospheric compositions and luminosities, which are influenced by their formation mechanisms. Using the Gemini Planet Imager, we discovered a planet orbiting the ~20-million-year-old star 51 Eridani at a projected separation of 13 astronomical units. Near-infrared observations show a spectrum with strong methane and water-vapor absorption. Modeling of the spectra and photometry yields a luminosity (normalized by the luminosity of the Sun) of 1.6 to 4.0 × 10−6 and an effective temperature of 600 to 750 kelvin. For this age and luminosity, “hot-start” formation models indicate a mass twice that of Jupiter. This planet also has a sufficiently low luminosity to be consistent with the “cold-start” core-accretion process that may have formed Jupiter.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

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The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. B. Bowler
2. Jon Fortney
3. N. Madhusudhan
4. Michael C. Liu
5. M. Marley
6. T. Dupuy
7. Adam Burrows
8. C. Mordasini

In Instrumentation

1. B. Bowler
2. Jon Fortney
3. M. Marley
4. N. Madhusudhan
5. Michael C. Liu
6. T. Dupuy
7. Adam Burrows
8. C. Mordasini

Citations in the corpus

• Imaging Extrasolar Giant Planets (2016, background): “For example, 51 Eri b may be as low as 2 MJup or as high as 12 MJup depending on which cooling model (hot or cold) is assumed (Macintosh et al. 2015).”
• SPHERE: the exoplanet imager for the Very Large Telescope (2019, background): “GPI has since produced a wealth of discoveries, including a new directly imaged exoplanet around 51 Eri (e.g., Macintosh et al. 2015; Hung et al. 2015; Konopacky et al. 2016).”
• Discovery of a warm, dusty giant planet around HIP 65426 (2017, background): “1-210524 b (7 − 12 MJup at 330 au; L2 − 4 at 5 Myr; Lachapelle et al. 2015; Manjavacas et al. 2014; Lafrenière et al. 2008).”
• Exoplanetary Atmospheres: Key Insights, Challenges, and Prospects (2019, unknown): “, 15, 129, 14, 174, 144, 143, 93) and 51 Eri b (159).”
• The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey: Giant Planet and Brown Dwarf Demographics from 10 to 100 au (2019, background): “51Eridanib was discovered early in the GPIES campaign (Macintosh et al. 2015) around the F0IV βPictoris moving group member (Bell et al. 2015) 51Eridani (hereafter 51 Eri).”
• THE HAWAII INFRARED PARALLAX PROGRAM. II. YOUNG ULTRACOOL FIELD DWARFS (2016, background): “…(32) Leggett et al. (2002); (33) Liu et al. (2013b); (34) Lowrance et al. (1999); (35) Lowrance et al. (2000); (36) Luhman et al. (2007); (37) Macintosh et al. (2015); (38) Maire et al. (2016); (39) Males et al. (2014); (40) Marois et al. (2008); (41) Marois et al. (2010); (42) Marocco et…”
• Multiple Disk Gaps and Rings Generated by a Single Super-Earth (2017, background): “As far as direct imaging goes, gas giants a few dozen Myr old have been detected with high-contrast near-infrared (NIR) adaptive optics systems (Gemini/GPI and VLT/SPHERE): see 51 Eri b (Macintosh et al. 2015) and HD 131399Ab (Wagner et al. 2016).”
• An Accurate, Extensive, and Practical Line List of Methane for the HITEMP Database (2020, background): “…below ∼1300 K (Burrows & Sharp 1999), yet observations of CH4 have only been reported in the spectra of five exoplanets to date: HD 189733b (Swain et al. 2008), HD 209458b (Swain et al. 2009), XO-1b (Tinetti et al. 2010), HR 8799b (Barman et al. 2015) and 51 Eridani b (Macintosh et al. 2015).”
• A Population Study of Gaseous Exoplanets (2017, background): “…et al. 2013; Mandell et al. 2013; Todorov et al. 2013; McCullough et al. 2014; Snellen et al. 2014; Stevenson et al. 2014b; Zellem et al. 2014; Macintosh et al. 2015; Kreidberg et al. 2015; Iyer et al. 2016; Line et al. 2016; Tsiaras et al. 2016a) down to Neptune/Uranus (e.g. Stevenson et al.…”