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MEXICO: Astronomers have taken a photograph of a baby planet beyond the solar system that may reveal clues as to how planets such as Jupiter are formed and influence their planetary siblings, a new study shows.
Scientists used the newly commissioned Gemini Planet Imager, which is mounted on top of a telescope in Chile, to find the planet, known as 51 Eridani b. It circles a very young sun-like star that is located about 96 light years from Earth.
The planet, which is about double the size of Jupiter, is positioned a bit farther away from its parent star than Saturn orbits the sun. 51 Eridani b is one of the smallest planets beyond the solar system to be directly imaged.
Still radiating heat from its formation less than 20 million years ago, or about 40 million years after dinosaurs became extinct, 51 Eridani b is glowing in infrared light, which is how the telescope saw it.
“51 Eri b provides an opportunity to study in detail a planet that is still influenced by its formation initial conditions,” Stanford University astronomer Bruce Macintosh and colleagues wrote in this week’s issue of the journal Science.
