Imaging a previously unseen giant planet
How b Centauri b was directly observed by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope
1 The newly discovered planet
The planet can be seen here as a bright dot. While it’s pictured small, it’s actually 11 times as massive as Jupiter, which is itself 2.5 times more massive than all the other planets in the Solar System combined.
2 background star
It’s not easy spotting planets, especially when there are background stars to filter out. Here the background star looks similar to the planet, but when astronomers take multiple images at different times, the planet’s movement makes it stand out.
3 The binary star system
Just as the Sun is 11 times wider than Jupiter, the b Centauri two-star system is more prominent in this image than its orbiting planet. With a mass six times that of the Sun, you’d expect it to be.
4 Getting a clear image
The SPHERE instrument on the
VLT was used to take the image. A specialised telegraphic attachment called a coronagraph blocked out the direct light from the star so that the objects around it wouldn’t be obscured by the glare.