New planetary mass object in a multiple system

2023-09-26 13:02:40

HIP 81208 Multiple Star System – ESO

MADRID, 26 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –

An object approximately 15 times more massive than Jupiter has been discovered orbiting a small star in the HIP 81208 multiple system, 477 light years away.

The image captured by Very Large Telescope (VLT) from ESO (European Southern Observatory) in Chile shows the location of the new discovered planet.

Astronomers thought that HIP 81208 was a system consisting of a massive central star (A, the central bright spot), a brown dwarf (B) circling it, and a low-mass star (C) orbiting further away. However, the new study has revealed the new object (Cb), It orbits the smaller of the two stars (C).

The discovery of Cb means that HIP 81208 is a uniquely intriguing system with two stars and two smaller bodies orbiting each of them; in other words, a hierarchical quadruple system. The mass of the newly discovered Cb object puts it right on the border between planets and brown dwarfs (failed stars that are not massive or hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium).

The hidden giant Cb was discovered when a team of astronomers, led by A. Chomez of the Paris Observatory, re-analyzed file data of the High Contrast Spectropolarimetric Exoplanet Survey (SPHERE) instrument installed on the VLT.

While many other instruments use indirect methods to search for distant worlds, SPHERE uses a technique known as direct imaging: an actual image of the system. In fact, this is the first hierarchical quad system to be found using direct imaging, which will prove invaluable in understanding how complex systems like this form and evolve, ESO reports in a statement.