Marie-Eve Naud and Étienne Artigau
GU Psc b: An Unexpected
Planetary-mass Companion
Discovered with GMOS
Capturing the faint light of an exoplanet near the blinding glow of
its host star is a daunting task. It usually requires adaptive optics
observations with specifically designed instruments and an arsenal of
high-contrast imaging strategies. Our discovery of a giant exoplanet
with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) at Gemini South,
however, shows that some planets might be much easier to find
through “standard” imaging techniques.
In 2008, the direct detection (by Gemini) of a planet around 1RXS 1609-2105 and four alien
planets around the distant star HR 8799 (by Gemini and the W.M. Keck observatories) paved
the road to a new era of direct imaging exoplanet discoveries. Since then, a few other planets have joined the still short list of new worlds imaged, including β Pictoris b, GJ 504 b, and
HD 95086 b.
There is high hope that the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) and other new dedicated high-contrast imaging instruments will add many more objects to that list in the coming years. The
amazing sophistication of these instruments, however, is testament to how difficult it remains to detect even the most massive exoplanets through direct imaging.
A Planet Where There Shouldn’t Be
Our team, which includes researchers from Université de Montréal and international collaborators, just announced the discovery of a new exoplanet, GU Psc b. This planet, with
July 2014
GeminiFocus
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