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Scientists at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT), the Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute (IAC) and the Centre for Astrobiology (CAB) have captured the image of a giant planet, about 11 times the mass of Jupiter, around a star red dwarf star located about 40 light years.
The Astrophysical Journal publishes these results tomorrow.
In identifying this planet has participated Antonio Pérez Garrido, research worker responsible for Astrophysics UPCT.
"This study has been possible thanks to the techniques we have developed software that allowed us to find tens of millions of sources, those pairs of objects like this red dwarf planet and who have a common proper motion," he says the investigator, director of the department of Applied Physics.
At present many known extrasolar planets, most of which have been found through indirect techniques, such as the study of changes in the radial velocity of stars or planetary transits.
In many of these cases it is relatively gas giant planets orbiting distant stars to our Sun and, therefore, are very difficult to detect.
Rarely, astronomers have been able to capture these direct images of exoplanets.
It is what happens with VHS 1256b, as well has been called the newly discovered extrasolar planet.
It is the nearest extrasolar planet to our Sun, only 40 light years, which has been able to obtain an image and a spectrum.
The planet orbits a red dwarf at a distance 100 times the distance between the Sun and Earth (20 times that of Jupiter around the Sun, but only 2.5 times that of Pluto).
The system is young, with an age of 150 to 300 million years, that is, between 15 and 30 times younger than the Solar System.
VHS 1256b has a similar appearance to that Jupiter would probably have about 4,200 million years ago.
The relative closeness of the system makes this exoplanet in one of the most brilliant of detected at present, given its large orbital separation, VHS 1256b has been observed and studied in great detail: "It is a gas giant planet, with Jupiter a similar size, but with a mass 11 times greater.
Being young, the atmosphere is still relatively hot, about 1,200 ° C, and is still sufficiently bright, allowing us to detect with the VISTA telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), "says Bartosz Gauza, researcher conducting his Ph.D. in the IAC and first author.
VHS 1256b has very red colors in the near infrared, where most of the light emitted, and has peculiar features in its atmosphere, which could make this object in a reference for future research.
"In the atmosphere -comenta Victor Sanchez Bejar, IAC researcher and co-author of the study have found water vapor features and alkali metal, typical of this type of planets, but not of methane, a gas also expected these temperatures.
Because of his youth and closeness we have obtained for the first time in great detail, the visible light spectrum of an exoplanet.
We needed to use a large diameter telescope, the Gran Telescopio Canarias as the OSIRIS instrument. "
The object is identified by correlating two large databases: catalog Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), covering the sky in the infrared, and the catalog of VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS), a study of all the South, also in the infrared, and that currently is taking place with the VISTA telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
"The study of the red dwarf, on the border between low-mass stars and brown dwarfs, has allowed us to determine with great accuracy the distance and age of the system, 1256b VHS being one of the few exoplanets in which these parameters are well known, "says Maria Rosa Zapatero Osorio, a researcher at the Astrobiology Centre (CAB) and co-author of the study.
The intrinsic luminosity and the great separation from its star, the planet VHS 1256b may provide comments on the entire spectrum, from radio / millimeter to UV / X-ray through infrared, revealing impossible or very difficult to measure phenomena on other systems exoplanetary, for example, the impact of comets or moons detection of comparable size to Earth.
Seneca and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Foundation have funded this research.
Source: UPCT
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