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A wide-orbit giant planet in the high-mass b Centauri binary system.

Markus Janson1, Raffaele Gratton2, Laetitia Rodet3

  • 1Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. markus.janson@astro.su.se.

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Giant planets can form around massive stars, challenging previous assumptions. This study detected a planet in a wide orbit around a massive binary star system, expanding our understanding of planet formation extremes.

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Area of Science:

  • Exoplanetary Science
  • Stellar and Galactic Astronomy
  • Planet Formation and Evolution

Background:

  • Planet formation is observed across diverse stellar masses and system architectures.
  • Previous studies indicated a decrease in giant planet frequency around stars exceeding 1.9 solar masses (M⊙), suggesting formation impediments.
  • Detection methods for close-in planets are insensitive to wide-orbit companions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate planet formation across the full stellar mass parameter space, particularly at higher masses.
  • To test the hypothesis that giant planets are rare or non-existent around stars significantly more massive than the Sun.
  • To explore the possibility of planets existing in wide orbits around massive stars.

Main Methods:

  • Employed direct imaging techniques to detect exoplanets.
  • Focused observations on the 6- to 10-M⊙ binary system b Centauri.
  • Analyzed the planet-to-star mass ratio and orbital separation.

Main Results:

  • Confirmed the existence of a planet orbiting b Centauri at an extreme distance of 560 times the Sun-Earth distance.
  • The planet's mass ratio (0.10-0.17%) is comparable to Jupiter's ratio with the Sun.
  • This discovery demonstrates that planets can exist in significantly more massive stellar systems than previously extrapolated.

Conclusions:

  • The formation of this wide-orbit planet around a massive binary challenges the limitations of the core accretion model.
  • Alternative formation mechanisms, such as gravitational instability or migration from a different formation location, are plausible.
  • This finding expands the known parameter space for planet formation, particularly around massive stars.