1. Written
content
©
2008
Jack
Oughton
Fomalhaut B In Focus: Meet the first planet to be visibly imaged outside our solar system
Image 1: A direct visible light observation of Fomalhaut B
Fomalhaut Facts
• Planet Size: Estimated no more than three times Jupiter's mass
• Planet Location: Orbiting the star Fomalhaut, 25 light-years away in the constellation
Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish).
• Orbital Period: 872 years.
• Orbital Distance: 17 billion kilometres from the star, roughly 10 times the distance
of the planet Saturn from the Sun.
• Planet Structure: Fomalhaut b is thought to possess a circumplanetary disc, like the
rings around Jupiter. Fomalhaut b’s disk is at a distance similar to the orbital radius
of Jupiter's satellites. Moons could be forming around the planet.
• Fomalhaut b is believed to be the coolest, lowest-mass object ever observed outside
our solar system.
• The star, Fomalhaut is expected to burn out in only one billion years, 1/10th the
lifespan of our Sun. This will probably not leave enough time for advanced life to
evolve on any habitable worlds the star might possess.
Discovery Timeline
• Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting ever since the discovery of an
excess of dust around the system in the 1980s
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2. Written
content
©
2008
Jack
Oughton
• In 2004, the first-ever visible light image of a large dust belt surrounding Fomalhaut
was taken. It showed that this belt is actually a ring of protoplanetary debris
approximately 34.5 billion kilometres across with a sharp inner edge. This sharp inner
edge suggested the presence of young planets which gather up dust and matter as they
orbit - and prompted the team to begin looking for the suspected planet in 2005.
• In 2008 the first direct light images of Fomalhaut b are taken
• Future observations will image the planet in infared and look for evidence of water
vapour clouds in the atmosphere. This give us our first chance to study a the planetary
equivilant of a newborn, only 100 million years old.
• The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled to be launched in 2013, will be
turning its infared eye on Fomalhaut. It will have stronger optical capabilities than we
currently have today, and will search for other planets in the system. It will also look
at the region interior to the dust ring for other things such as an inner asteroid belt.
Significance of discovery
• The search for exoplanets has up to now depended on detecting either the wobble they
induce in their parent star or, if their orbits are side-on to telescopes, watching them
dim the star's light as they pass in front of it. We have never had a ‘naked eye’ image
before.
• The inner edge of our Solar System's Kuiper Belt is similarly shaped by the
gravitational influence of Neptune, researchers believe Fomalhaut could harbour more
planets.
• Current methods to find exoplanets can only detect Jupiter-sized objects and larger;
Dr. Christian Marois, the leader of a team that recorded three planets circling a star
known as HR 8799 believes that there could be more undiscovered planets in orbit
around Fomalhaut, too small for us to detect: "Other gas giants or even rocky planets
could reside there."
• The Fomalhaut system is only 200 million years old, ours is thought to be over 5
billion years old: we are watching a new system form.
• New technological advancements in the coming decades may allow us to study a
planetary system much like our own, in a younger stage of development, and allow us
to compare how varying factors such as the size of the star, and the position and
number of the planets affect the system as a whole.
References:
HEIC0821 News Release, Hubble/ESA, -
http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/doc/heic0821.doc
Exoplanets
finally
come
into
view,
BBC
News
-­‐
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7725584.stm-­‐
Notes
to
editor:
I
am
happy
to
include
more
pictures
,
quotes,
information
and
a
visual
timeline,
depending
on
the
amount
of
space
for
segment.
I’d
also
be
happy
to
interview
some
of
the
researchers
involved.
Some
text
would
be
rewritten
but
this
is
the
structure
i
am
prepared
to
work
with.
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3. Written
content
©
2008
Jack
Oughton
I
am
of
course
open
to
revisions
and
suggestions.
I
also
use
publisher
and
would
therefore
like
to
create
a
visual
design
for
the
piece
that
looks
like
a
moderately
futuristic
fact
file,
however
I
am
not
aware
of
your
policy
on
this,
as
it
may
conflict
with
your
magazine’s
visual
design
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