A team of astronomers, including half a dozen from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, have used the Gemini Observatory’s new Gemini Planet Imager to find the most solar system-like planet ever directly imaged around another star.
The planet, known as 51 Eridani b, is about two times the mass of Jupiter and orbits its host star at about 13 times the Earth-sun distance (equivalent to being between Saturn and Uranus in our solar system). The planet is located about 100 light-years away from Earth.
The Gemini data provide scientists with the strongest-ever spectroscopic detection of methane in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet, adding to its similarities to giant planets in our solar system.
Please join +Tony Darnell, Dr. +Carol Christian and +Scott Lewis as they discuss this planet discovery with Dr. Marshall Perrin and Dr. Laurent Pueyo of STScI.
Read more here:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/30/
http://www.gemini.edu/node/12403
#Space #astronomy #starbirth #hubble #cosmology #exoplanets