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DescriptionNew planetary-mass object found in quadruple system (potw2338a).jpg |
English: This Picture of the Week shows the unique stellar system HIP 81208, as captured by ESO’s Very Large Telescope (
VLT) in Chile. Astronomers thought HIP 81208 was a system consisting of a massive central star (A, the central bright spot), a
brown dwarf (B) circling around it, and a low-mass star (C) orbiting further away. However, a new study has revealed a never-before-seen hidden gem: an object (Cb), approximately 15 times more massive than Jupiter, orbiting around 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 one –– in other words, a hierarchical quadruple system. The mass of the newly found Cb object places it right at the border between planets and brown dwarfs –– failed stars that are not massive and hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium.The hidden giant Cb was spotted when a team of astronomers, led by A. Chomez of the Paris Observatory,
re-analysed archival data from the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (
SPHERE) instrument installed on the VLT. While many other instruments use
indirect methods to hunt for far-flung worlds, SPHERE uses a technique known as direct imaging: what we see here is an actual image of the system. Indeed, this is the first hierarchical quadruple system to be found using direct imaging, which will prove invaluable to understanding how complex systems like this one form and evolve. |
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Date | 18 September 2023 (upload date) | ||
Source |
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Author | ESO/A. Chomez et al. | ||
Other versions |
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This media was created by the
European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Their website states: "Unless specifically noted, the images, videos, and music distributed on the public ESO website, along with the texts of press releases, announcements, pictures of the week, blog posts and captions, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided the credit is clear and visible." To the uploader: You must provide a link (URL) to the original file and the authorship information if available. |
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Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
current | 07:15, 18 September 2023 |
![]() | 1,616 × 1,616 (499 KB) | OptimusPrimeBot | #Spacemedia - Upload of https://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/large/potw2338a.jpg via Commons:Spacemedia |
This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it.
If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.
Credit/Provider | ESO/A. Chomez et al. |
---|---|
Source | European Southern Observatory |
Short title |
|
Image title |
|
Usage terms |
|
Date and time of data generation | 06:00, 18 September 2023 |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop 24.7 (Windows) |
File change date and time | 16:52, 7 September 2023 |
Date and time of digitizing | 14:55, 14 August 2023 |
Date metadata was last modified | 18:52, 7 September 2023 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:073ac137-ab06-b44d-9802-1708131050c5 |
Keywords | HIP 81208 |
Contact information |
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, None, D-85748 Germany |
IIM version | 4 |
Original file (1,616 × 1,616 pixels, file size: 499 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
![]() | This is a file from the
Wikimedia Commons. Information from its
description page there is shown below. Commons is a freely licensed media file repository. You can help. |
DescriptionNew planetary-mass object found in quadruple system (potw2338a).jpg |
English: This Picture of the Week shows the unique stellar system HIP 81208, as captured by ESO’s Very Large Telescope (
VLT) in Chile. Astronomers thought HIP 81208 was a system consisting of a massive central star (A, the central bright spot), a
brown dwarf (B) circling around it, and a low-mass star (C) orbiting further away. However, a new study has revealed a never-before-seen hidden gem: an object (Cb), approximately 15 times more massive than Jupiter, orbiting around 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 one –– in other words, a hierarchical quadruple system. The mass of the newly found Cb object places it right at the border between planets and brown dwarfs –– failed stars that are not massive and hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium.The hidden giant Cb was spotted when a team of astronomers, led by A. Chomez of the Paris Observatory,
re-analysed archival data from the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (
SPHERE) instrument installed on the VLT. While many other instruments use
indirect methods to hunt for far-flung worlds, SPHERE uses a technique known as direct imaging: what we see here is an actual image of the system. Indeed, this is the first hierarchical quadruple system to be found using direct imaging, which will prove invaluable to understanding how complex systems like this one form and evolve. |
||
Date | 18 September 2023 (upload date) | ||
Source |
|
||
Author | ESO/A. Chomez et al. | ||
Other versions |
|
![]() |
This media was created by the
European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Their website states: "Unless specifically noted, the images, videos, and music distributed on the public ESO website, along with the texts of press releases, announcements, pictures of the week, blog posts and captions, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided the credit is clear and visible." To the uploader: You must provide a link (URL) to the original file and the authorship information if available. |
![]() ![]() This file is licensed under the
Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International license.
|
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
current | 07:15, 18 September 2023 |
![]() | 1,616 × 1,616 (499 KB) | OptimusPrimeBot | #Spacemedia - Upload of https://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/large/potw2338a.jpg via Commons:Spacemedia |
This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it.
If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.
Credit/Provider | ESO/A. Chomez et al. |
---|---|
Source | European Southern Observatory |
Short title |
|
Image title |
|
Usage terms |
|
Date and time of data generation | 06:00, 18 September 2023 |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop 24.7 (Windows) |
File change date and time | 16:52, 7 September 2023 |
Date and time of digitizing | 14:55, 14 August 2023 |
Date metadata was last modified | 18:52, 7 September 2023 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:073ac137-ab06-b44d-9802-1708131050c5 |
Keywords | HIP 81208 |
Contact information |
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, None, D-85748 Germany |
IIM version | 4 |