The Subaru Telescope, stationed at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, has recently made its inaugural discoveries – a ‘failed star’, otherwise known as a brown dwarf, and a distant exoplanet. These discoveries were made possible by the telescope’s new cutting-edge adaptive optics system, SCExAO (Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics), which counteracts the distorting effects of the Earth’s atmosphere to produce high-resolution images of outer space.
The ‘failed star’, or brown dwarf, was identified as ‘2MASS J1207’ and is found in the constellation Hydra. These celestial bodies are often referred to as ‘failed stars’ because they are not massive enough to ignite nuclear fusion in their cores, the process that powers stars. 2MASS J1207 is considered to be a young brown dwarf, aged between 8 and 20 million years old, and is located approximately 170 light years away from Earth.
The exoplanet, named ‘2MASS J1207b’, was found orbiting the brown dwarf. Exoplanets are planets located outside of our solar system and orbit a star. 2MASS J1207b is a gas giant and is thought to be around eight times the size of Jupiter, making it one of the largest exoplanets ever discovered. It completes an orbit around its host star every 11 years and is located roughly 40 astronomical units (AU) away from it, which is about the same distance as the dwarf planet Pluto is from the Sun.
These discoveries mark the first time the SCExAO system has been used to directly image celestial bodies, showcasing its potential for future discoveries. The SCExAO system is considered a breakthrough in astronomical technology, as it allows for the direct imaging of exoplanets and brown dwarfs that are otherwise too faint to be observed by conventional telescopes.
The discoveries were made as part of the SEEDS (Strategic Explorations of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru) project, a five-year project dedicated to directly imaging extrasolar planets and circumstellar disks around several hundred nearby stars using the Subaru Telescope.
These findings open up exciting possibilities for further space exploration and research. By studying these celestial bodies, scientists can gain a better understanding of the formation and evolution of planets and star systems, offering new insights into our own solar system and the universe as a whole.
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