a sampling of past successes while hinting
at what is possible with these instruments. massive stars, halo binaries, massive young
stellar objects
• Pluto + Charon imaging (Howell et al.,
2012). • Deriving/improving mass-luminosity rela-
tionships for low-metallicity stars and M-
dwarfs
• TRAPPIST-1 (Howell et al., 2016)
• Half of all exoplanet host stars are binary
(Matson et al., 2018)
• Kepler-13AB: see press release page 10.
Other science being pursued:
• Ages of moving groups (and imaged plan-
ets in the moving groups) via dynamical
mass determinations using Gemini speck-
le + GPI
• Light curves of white dwarfs
• Studying multiplicity of nearby M-dwarfs,
Rachel Matson is an astronomer at the United
States Naval Observatory and is a member of the
‘Alopeke/Zorro team. She can be reached at:
[email protected]
Andy Stephens is an instrument scientist at Gem-
ini North and is a member of the ‘Alopeke/Zorro
team. He can be reached at:
[email protected]
Gemini Press Release
Exoplanets Can’t Hide Their Secrets from
Innovative New Instrument
A cunning new instrument at Gemini Observatory has achieved what was
once thought impossible — namely, the characterization of an exoplanet
orbiting a binary star and determining which star of the pair it orbits.
In an unprecedented feat, an American research team discovered hidden secrets of an
elusive exoplanet using a powerful new instrument at the 8-meter Gemini North tele-
scope on Maunakea in Hawai‘i. The findings not only classify a Jupiter-sized exoplanet in
a close binary star system, but also conclusively demonstrate, for the first time, which star
the planet orbits.
The breakthrough occurred when Steve B. Howell of the NASA Ames Research Center and
his team used a high-resolution imaging instrument of their design — named ‘Alopeke (a
contemporary Hawaiian word for Fox). The team observed exoplanet Kepler-13b as it passed
in front of (transited) one of the stars in the Kepler-13AB binary star system some 2,000 light
years distant. Prior to this attempt, the true nature of the exoplanet was a mystery.
10
GeminiFocus
October 2019