Washington, Mar 4 (ANI): Astronomers have measured the mass and temperature of giant planet a Pictoris-b that is still moving around its star.
Located 63.4 light-years from the Sun, a Pictoris is a very young star of about 12 million years old, which is 75 percent more massive than the Sun.
a Pic is well known for harbouring an extended and structured circumstellar disk. It was actually the first star to have its disk directly imaged more than 25 years ago. Discovered in 2009, this giant planet was seen orbiting within the disk.
With an orbital distance of 8 to 15 astronomical units (AU), a Pictoris b is the closest exoplanet to its star that has ever been imaged.
An international team of astronomers observed the a Pic system, using the VLT/NaCo instrument at 2.18 ?m. Previous observations had been made near 4 ?m.
They detected the planet again and compared these new observations with the previous ones.
Combining all the data together, they found that the planet is moving around the star, as expected from the previous data.
Analysing the new observations, the team was then able to measure the mass of the planet, around 7 to 11 times the mass of Jupiter, and its effective temperature, between 1100 and 1700 Degrees C.
The new data also reveals about the formation of the planet, especially because the system is very young.
The planet a Pic b is still warm, implying that it has retained most of the primordial heat acquired during its formation.
Researchers hope that forthcoming observations of beta-Pictoris b with NaCo and also with the next generation VLT instrument SPHERE could soon provide more details about its atmosphere and orbital properties and about the way this companion influences the surrounding disk material.
The study is published in Astronomy and Astrophysics. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
