Direct Image of an Exoplanet

The Second Discovery from the COol Companions ON Ultrawide orbiTS (COCONUTS) Program

Excellent!

Thanks, sue.

Don't use that word! There may be a lawyer in the house!

Here is some information:

"We present the identification of the COCONUTS-2 system, composed of the M3 dwarf L 34-26 and the T9 dwarf WISEPA J075108.79−763449.6. Given their common proper motions and parallaxes, these two field objects constitute a physically bound pair with a projected separation of 594" (6471 au). The primary star COCONUTS-2A has strong stellar activity (Hα, X-ray, and UV emission) and is rapidly rotating (Prot=2.83 days), from which we estimate an age of 150-800 Myr. Comparing equatorial rotational velocity derived from the TESS light curve to spectroscopic vsini, we find COCONUTS-2A has a nearly edge-on inclination. The wide exoplanet COCONUTS-2b has an effective temperature of Teff=434±9 K, a surface gravity of logg=4.11+0.11−0.18 dex, and a mass of M=6.3+1.5−1.9 MJup based on hot-start evolutionary models, leading to a 0.016+0.004−0.005 mass ratio for the COCONUTS-2 system. COCONUTS-2b is the second coldest (after WD 0806−661B) and the second widest (after TYC 9486-927-1 b) exoplanet imaged to date. Comparison of COCONUTS-2b's infrared photometry with ultracool model atmospheres suggests the presence of both condensate clouds and non-equilibrium chemistry in its photosphere. Similar to 51 Eri b, COCONUTS-2b has a sufficiently low luminosity (log(Lbol/L⊙)=−6.384±0.028 dex) to be consistent with the cold-start process that may form gas-giant (exo)planets, though its large separation means such formation would not have occurred in situ. Finally, at a distance of 10.9 pc, COCONUTS-2b is the nearest imaged exoplanet to Earth known to date."

[2107.02805] The Second Discovery from the COol Companions ON Ultrawide orbiTS (COCONUTS) Program: A Cold Wide-Orbit Exoplanet around a Young Field M Dwarf at 10.9 pc (arxiv.org)

So what is exactly being stated here. Not being an astrophysicist this is all just Coconuts x 2 to most people. Probably aptly named. Shall we book with Branson/Bezos to go and look at it or shall we inhabit Coconuts and mess it up like earth?

If you read the Extremetech article (https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/325276-astronomers-directly-image-planet-just-35-light-years-away) you should understand that the red bars point to an exoplanet. (An exoplanet is a planet not orbiting our sun.) This exoplanet orbits the star between the two blue bars.

35 lightyears is a bit far to go on today's technology. Better take along a lot of reading material. The gravity and temperature are a tad high for my likes. Its sun is a long way away and birthdays would be a long time apart (1.1 million earth years).

AFAIK, visual detection of an exoplanet is usually hampered by the glare of its sun. In this case, the planet and star were far separated and only associated with each other by a common proper motion and parallax.

Any time-lapse fotos available, upon which to highlight the relative motions ?