{"id":121204,"date":"2020-06-24T05:00:27","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=121204"},"modified":"2020-06-22T11:42:49","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T21:42:49","slug":"infant-planet-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/06\/24\/infant-planet-discovered\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Infant\u2019 planet discovered by UH<\/abbr> astronomers, Maunakea telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Artist illustration of AU<\/abbr> Mic b seen orbiting its parent star, AU<\/abbr> Mic. Photo credit: NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center\/Chris Smith (USRA<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astronomers study stars and planets much younger than the Sun to learn about past events that shaped the Solar System and Earth. Most of these stars are far enough away to make observations challenging, even with the largest telescopes. But now this is changing.<\/p>\n

University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a> astronomers are part of an international team that recently discovered an infant planet around a nearby young star. The discovery was reported today in the international journal Nature<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

The planet is about the size of Neptune, but, unlike Neptune, it is much closer to its star, taking only eight and a half days to complete one orbit. It is named “AU<\/abbr> Mic b” after its host star, AU<\/abbr> Microscopii, or “AU<\/abbr> Mic” for short. The planet was discovered using the NASA TESS<\/abbr> planet-finding satellite, as it periodically passed in front of AU<\/abbr> Mic, blocking a small fraction of its light. The signal was confirmed by observations with another NASA<\/abbr> satellite, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and with the NASA<\/abbr> Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF<\/abbr>) on Maunakea. The observations on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island used a new instrument called iSHELL<\/abbr> that can make very precise measurements of the motion of a star like AU<\/abbr> Mic. These measurements revealed a slight wobble of the star, as it moves in response to the gravitational pull of the planet. It confirmed that AU<\/abbr> Mic b was a planet and not a companion star, which would cause a much larger motion.<\/p>\n

Discovery on Maunakea sets foundation<\/h2>\n