Astronomers directly image "super-Jupiter" exoplanet
Posted: Tue, Nov 20, 2012, 7:08 AM ET (1208 GMT)
Astronomers announced Monday they had directly imaged a massive extrasolar planet orbiting another star. Kappa Andromedae b has a mass 12.8 times that of Jupiter, placing it near the dividing line between planet and brown dwarf; astronomers call the world a "super-Jupiter" to cover both possibilities. The exoplanet orbits the star Kappa Andromedae, a B-class star 2.5 times the mass of the Sun 170 light-years away, at a distance of 55 AU. Astronomers observed the super-Jupiter using the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, at near-infrared wavelengths and by masking out the light from the star itself. The discovery suggests that large stars are also capable of hosting planetary systems.
Astronomers announced Monday they had directly imaged a massive extrasolar planet orbiting another star. Kappa Andromedae b has a mass 12.8 times that of Jupiter, placing it near the dividing line between planet and brown dwarf; astronomers call the world a "super-Jupiter" to cover both possibilities. The exoplanet orbits the star Kappa Andromedae, a B-class star 2.5 times the mass of the Sun 170 light-years away, at a distance of 55 AU. Astronomers observed the super-Jupiter using the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, at near-infrared wavelengths and by masking out the light from the star itself. The discovery suggests that large stars are also capable of hosting planetary systems.
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