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Revision as of 18:10, 23 November 2004 by 132.205.95.65 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The planet 51 Pegasi b
The name of the exoplanet is "51 Peg b", the b used to indicate it is the first companion of its parent star. Further companions would be designated c, d, and so on. It has been informally named 'Bellerophon'. After its discovery many teams confirmed its existence and obtained more observations of its properties, including the fact it orbits very close to the star, suffers temperatures around 1000 Celsius, and is about half the mass of Jupiter. At the time this close distance was not compatible with theory and resulted in discussions of orbital migration.
The planet was discovered using a sensitive spectroscope that could detect the slight, regular velocity changes in the star's spectral lines of around 70 metres per second. These changes are caused by the planet's gravitational effects from just 7 million kilometres distance from the star.
After the announcement, on October 12, 1995, confirmation came from Dr. Geoffrey Marcy from San Francisco State University and Dr. Paul Butler from the University of California, Berkeley using the Hamilton Spectrograph at the Lick Observatory near San Jose in California.
This discovery of this first exoplanet established a milestone in astronomical research, as it forced astronomers to realize that giant planets could exist in short period orbits. Once astronomers realized that it was worth looking for giant planets with the currently avaliable technology, much more telescope time was devoted to radial velocity planet searches, and hence many more exoplanets in the Sun's neighbourhood have been discovered.
External links
- Current Notes from the Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia
- Velocity curve and information from the Geneva based Planet Search Team
- Velocity curves and information from the California & Carnegie Planet Search Team
- solstation entry