The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES)

The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES)

The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) recently completed its 4-year search for light emitted by gas giant planets around 531 of the nearest, youngest stars to the Sun. Results from this direct imaging search turned up six giant exoplanets and four brown dwarfs, and indicate that planets slightly more massive and farther from their star than Jupiter are relatively rare around Sun-like stars. The survey also detected "debris disks" of tiny dust particles containing the rocky leftovers of planet formation around 29 of the stars, most of which showed ring shapes that could indicate smaller (as yet unseen) inner planets clearing out dust close to the star. More discoveries will be coming from the Gemini Planet Imager as its hardware is upgraded and it is moved from Chile to Hawai'i for new observations.

More news about GPIES can be found on its website: http://planetimager.org

Watch last week's Facebook Live: Gemini Planet Imager and the Search for Young Worlds with Simon Steel and Tom Esposito below.

JWST: NASA’s Amazing Next Generation Observatory

 
 

JWST eBook preview

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been called Hubble’s successor, and in terms of how it could revolutionize astronomy, perhaps it will earn that title. But JWST’s true lineage lies in the invisible realm of infrared astronomy, a type of light that can unlock the secrets of star birth, the chemistry of exoplanets, and the dawn of the age of galaxies. Meet JWST’s predecessors, get to know the beauty of the infrared sky, and see how JWST’s amazing design will change the way we see, and comprehend, our universe.

 

Learn more with this free e-book from the SETI Institute, straight to your inbox:

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