The discovery of a massive alien planet that has only recently coalesced from gas and debris could assist astronomers seeking to understand how solar systems are created. The newly-discovered exoplanet, which resides roughly 100 light-years away from the Earth, is thought to have many similarities with Jupiter soon after the formation of the Solar System.
Exoplanet 51 Eridani b is the first alien world discovered using the Gemini Planet Imager.
Astronomers seeking to understand how our own family of planets formed often examine younger solar systems. However, Jupiter played important roles in the formation of our own solar system and continues to exert a massive influence today. By closely examining 51 Eridani b and potential other young Jupiters like this world, researchers hope to be able to learn more about how our own family of planets came into existence and evolved over time.
These "young Jupiters" are similar in size to the largest planet in our own family of planets, yet they are still in the process of forming, swallowing up the debris floating in the space around them.
The Gemini Planet Imager is a new instrument designed for studying exploanets and is operated by an international team of astronomers. The tool was specifically created to find young, dim planets orbiting around bright stars. Normally, light from these worlds is drowned out by their local suns.
"51 Eri is one of the best stars for imaging young planets. It's one of the very youngest stars this close to the Sun. 51 Eri was born 20 million years ago, 40 million years after the dinosaurs died out," said Eric Nielsen from the SETI Institute and Stanford University.
Most observatories that search for exoplanets depend on detecting the gravitational influence of a world as it orbits around its star or by seeing light from the stellar body dim as the object passes between it and our world. Instead, the Gemini Planet Imager detects infrared light from the planetary body itself, radiating out as it releases heat generated as debris rains onto the developing planet.
The newly-discovered world exhibits the strongest methane signature ever detected around an exoplanet. It is possible this finding could yield clues, uncovering secrets of the formation of this massive alien world and others like it.
Bruce Macintosh, a professor of physics in the Kavli Institute at Stanford, heads the Gemini Planet Imager program.
Discovery of 51 Eri and analysis of what the world could tell us about the formation of our own solar system was published in the journal Science.
