Exoplanet directly observed for the first time
A storm-ravaged exoplanet has been imaged by the ESO’s cutting-edge Very Large Telescope for the first time.
The first direct observation of an exoplanet using optical interferometry was made by the GRAVITY instrument, part of the VLTI— revealing a complex exoplanetary atmosphere with clouds of iron and silicates swirling in a planet-wide storm. The technique presents unique possibilities for characterising many of the exoplanets known today.
The exoplanet in question —HR8799e — was discovered in 2010 orbiting the young main-sequence star HR8799, which lies around 129 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. The finding was announced today by a letter published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics by the GRAVITY Collaboration.
The breakthrough — which reveals new characteristics of HR8799e — required an instrument with very high resolution and sensitivity such as GRAVITY. The instrument is capable of using the VLT’s four unit telescopes in conjunction to mimic a single larger telescope using a technique known as interferometry. What this does, in effect, is create a super-telescope — the VLTI — that collects and precisely disentangles the light from HR8799e’s atmosphere and the light from its parent star.
