ESO Science Release | HARPS | 2015 Apr 22
New technique paints promising picture for future
Astronomers using the HARPS planet-hunting machine at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile have made the first-ever direct detection of the spectrum of visible light reflected off an exoplanet. These observations also revealed new properties of this famous object, the first exoplanet ever discovered around a normal star: 51 Pegasi b. The result promises an exciting future for this technique, particularly with the advent of next generation instruments, such as ESPRESSO, on the VLT, and future telescopes, such as the E-ELT.
The exoplanet 51 Pegasi b lies some 50 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. It was discovered in 1995 and will forever be remembered as the first confirmed exoplanet to be found orbiting an ordinary star like the Sun. It is also regarded as the archetypal hot Jupiter — a class of planets now known to be relatively commonplace, which are similar in size and mass to Jupiter, but orbit much closer to their parent stars.
Since that landmark discovery, more than 1900 exoplanets in 1200 planetary systems have been confirmed, but, in the year of the twentieth anniversary of its discovery, 51 Pegasi b returns to the ring once more to provide another advance in exoplanet studies. ...
Evidence for a spectroscopic direct detection of reflected light from 51 Pegasi b - J. H. C. Martins et al
- Astronomy & Astrophysics 576 A134 (Apr 2015) DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201425298 (pdf)
- Monthly Notices of the RAS 436(2) 1215 (2013 Dec 01) DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stt1642
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1308.6516 > 29 Aug 2013 (v1), 04 Oct 2013 (v2)