SPHERE observations of the planet HD 131399Ab
The annotated composite image shows the newly discovered exoplanet HD 131399Ab in the triple-star system HD 131399. The image of the planet was obtained with the SPHERE imager on the ESO Very Large Telescope in Chile. This is the first exoplanet to be discovered by SPHERE and one of very few directly-imaged planets. With a temperature of around 580 degrees Celsius and an estimated mass of four Jupiter masses, it is also one of the coldest and least massive directly-imaged exoplanets.
The picture was created from two separate SPHERE observations: one to image the three stars and one to detect the faint planet. The planet appears vastly brighter in this image than in would in reality in comparison to the stars.
The artist’s impression shows a view of the triple star system HD 131399 from close to the giant planet orbiting in the system.
The wide-field image shows a piece of the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur) centred on the position of the triple star HD 131399. It was created from images from the Digitized Sky Survey 2. HD 131399 itself appears as a star of moderate brightness exactly at the centre of the picture.Credit: ESO/K. Wagner et al./L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser/Digitized Sky Survey 2
