First light of the Gemini Planet Imager
Abstrak
Significance Direct detection—spatially resolving the light of a planet from the light of its parent star—is an important technique for characterizing exoplanets. It allows observations of giant exoplanets in locations like those in our solar system, inaccessible by other methods. The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a new instrument for the Gemini South telescope. Designed and optimized only for high-contrast imaging, it incorporates advanced adaptive optics, diffraction control, a near-infrared spectrograph, and an imaging polarimeter. During first-light scientific observations in November 2013, GPI achieved contrast performance that is an order of magnitude better than conventional adaptive optics imagers. The Gemini Planet Imager is a dedicated facility for directly imaging and spectroscopically characterizing extrasolar planets. It combines a very high-order adaptive optics system, a diffraction-suppressing coronagraph, and an integral field spectrograph with low spectral resolution but high spatial resolution. Every aspect of the Gemini Planet Imager has been tuned for maximum sensitivity to faint planets near bright stars. During first-light observations, we achieved an estimated H band Strehl ratio of 0.89 and a 5-σ contrast of 106 at 0.75 arcseconds and 105 at 0.35 arcseconds. Observations of Beta Pictoris clearly detect the planet, Beta Pictoris b, in a single 60-s exposure with minimal postprocessing. Beta Pictoris b is observed at a separation of 434 ± 6 milliarcseconds (mas) and position angle 211.8 ± 0.5°. Fitting the Keplerian orbit of Beta Pic b using the new position together with previous astrometry gives a factor of 3 improvement in most parameters over previous solutions. The planet orbits at a semimajor axis of 9.0−0.4+0.8 AU near the 3:2 resonance with the previously known 6-AU asteroidal belt and is aligned with the inner warped disk. The observations give a 4% probability of a transit of the planet in late 2017.
Topik & Kata Kunci
Penulis (47)
B. Macintosh
J. Graham
P. Ingraham
Q. Konopacky
C. Marois
M. Perrin
L. Poyneer
Brian Jeffrey Bauman
T. Barman
A. Burrows
A. Cardwell
J. Chilcote
R. D. de Rosa
D. Dillon
R. Doyon
J. Dunn
Darren Erikson
M. Fitzgerald
D. Gavel
S. Goodsell
M. Hartung
P. Hibon
P. Kalas
J. Larkin
J. Maire
F. Marchis
M. Marley
James McBride
M. Millar-Blanchaer
K. Morzinski
A. Norton
B. Oppenheimer
D. Palmer
J. Patience
L. Pueyo
F. Rantakyro
N. Sadakuni
L. Saddlemyer
D. Savransky
Andrew W. Serio
R. Soummer
A. Sivaramakrishnan
I. Song
Sandrine Thomas
J. Wallace
S. Wiktorowicz
S. Wolff
Akses Cepat
- Tahun Terbit
- 2014
- Bahasa
- en
- Total Sitasi
- 493×
- Sumber Database
- Semantic Scholar
- DOI
- 10.1117/12.2056709
- Akses
- Open Access ✓