Newly found exoplanet is smallest seen directly
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029122
Science : Only about 10 of the 2000 exoplanets that have been found have been seen via direct imaging. But a new tool, the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), could change that. And the first exoplanet it found is also the smallest yet seen directly. The planet, dubbed 51 Eri b, is 100 light-years away and only about 20 million years old. It is about twice the mass of Jupiter and has an orbit more than twice as large as Jupiter’s. GPI and other new instruments being deployed for direct exoplanet imaging use a coronagraph to block out the light from the parent star, and they employ extreme adaptive optics to account for distortions due to Earth’s atmosphere. By looking for light that is reflected off an orbiting planet and splitting it into a spectrum, they can determine properties of the planet’s atmosphere.
