XO-1 is a
magnitudeThe apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, normalized to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...
11
yellow dwarfA G-type main sequence star , often called a yellow dwarf, is a main-sequence star of spectral type G and luminosity class V...
starA star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma that is held together by gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth. Other stars are visible in the night sky, when they are not outshone by the Sun...
located approximately 600
light-yearAs defined by the International Astronomical Union , a light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year.The speed of light is 299,792,458 metres per second...
s away in the
constellationIn modern astronomy, a constellation is an area of the celestial sphere, defined by exact boundaries.The term "constellation" can also be used loosely to refer to just the more prominent visible stars that seem to form a pattern in that area.-Definitions:...
Corona Borealis. XO-1 has a
massIn physics, mass commonly refers to any of three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent: inertial mass, active gravitational mass and passive gravitational mass...
and
radiusIn classical geometry, a radius of a circle or sphere is any line segment from its center to its perimeter. By extension, the radius of a circle or sphere is the length of any such segment, which is half the diameter....
similar to the
SunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.86% of the Solar System's mass....
The
SuperWASPSuperWASP is performing an ultra-wide angle search for transiting extrasolar planets with the aim of covering the entire sky down to ~15th magnitude....
project has observed and classified this star as a
variable starA star is classified as variable if its apparent brightness as seen from Earth changes over time, whether the changes are due to variations in the star's actual luminosity, or to variations in the amount of the star's light that is blocked from reaching Earth...
, perhaps due to the
eclipsingAn eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when one celestial object moves into the shadow of another. The term is derived from the ancient Greek noun , which is derived from the verb , "to cease to exist," a combination of prefix , from preposition , "out," and of verb , "to be absent"...
planet. This star is not listed in the General Catalog of Variable Stars.
In 2006 the
extrasolar planetAn extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet beyond our solar system, orbiting a star other than our Sun. , 403 exoplanets are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. The vast majority have been detected through radial velocity observations and other indirect methods rather than actual...
XO-1bXO-1 b, also catalogued as GSC 02041-01657 b, is an extrasolar planet approximately 600 light-years away in the constellation of Corona Borealis...
was discovered orbiting XO-1 by the transit method using the
XO TelescopeThe XO Telescope is a telescope located on the 3054 m summit of Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii, formed by a pair of 200 mm telephoto lenses. It is used to detect extrasolar planets using the transit method. It is similar to the TrES survey telescope...
.This international team of professional and amateur
astronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars, and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
s discovered a
JupiterJupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass slightly less than one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all of the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas...
-sized planet orbiting around XO-1.
XO-1 is a
magnitudeThe apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, normalized to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...
11
yellow dwarfA G-type main sequence star , often called a yellow dwarf, is a main-sequence star of spectral type G and luminosity class V...
starA star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma that is held together by gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth. Other stars are visible in the night sky, when they are not outshone by the Sun...
located approximately 600
light-yearAs defined by the International Astronomical Union , a light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year.The speed of light is 299,792,458 metres per second...
s away in the
constellationIn modern astronomy, a constellation is an area of the celestial sphere, defined by exact boundaries.The term "constellation" can also be used loosely to refer to just the more prominent visible stars that seem to form a pattern in that area.-Definitions:...
Corona Borealis. XO-1 has a
massIn physics, mass commonly refers to any of three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent: inertial mass, active gravitational mass and passive gravitational mass...
and
radiusIn classical geometry, a radius of a circle or sphere is any line segment from its center to its perimeter. By extension, the radius of a circle or sphere is the length of any such segment, which is half the diameter....
similar to the
SunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.86% of the Solar System's mass....
The
SuperWASPSuperWASP is performing an ultra-wide angle search for transiting extrasolar planets with the aim of covering the entire sky down to ~15th magnitude....
project has observed and classified this star as a
variable starA star is classified as variable if its apparent brightness as seen from Earth changes over time, whether the changes are due to variations in the star's actual luminosity, or to variations in the amount of the star's light that is blocked from reaching Earth...
, perhaps due to the
eclipsingAn eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when one celestial object moves into the shadow of another. The term is derived from the ancient Greek noun , which is derived from the verb , "to cease to exist," a combination of prefix , from preposition , "out," and of verb , "to be absent"...
planet. This star is not listed in the General Catalog of Variable Stars.
Planetary system
In 2006 the
extrasolar planetAn extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet beyond our solar system, orbiting a star other than our Sun. , 403 exoplanets are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. The vast majority have been detected through radial velocity observations and other indirect methods rather than actual...
XO-1bXO-1 b, also catalogued as GSC 02041-01657 b, is an extrasolar planet approximately 600 light-years away in the constellation of Corona Borealis...
was discovered orbiting XO-1 by the transit method using the
XO TelescopeThe XO Telescope is a telescope located on the 3054 m summit of Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii, formed by a pair of 200 mm telephoto lenses. It is used to detect extrasolar planets using the transit method. It is similar to the TrES survey telescope...
.This international team of professional and amateur
astronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars, and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
s discovered a
JupiterJupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass slightly less than one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all of the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas...
-sized planet orbiting around XO-1. The team, led by Peter McCullough of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, includes four amateur astronomers from North America and Europe.
The planet was confirmed using the
Harlan J. Smith TelescopeThe Harlan J. Smith Telescope is a 2.7m telescope located at the McDonald Observatory, in Texas, in the United States. This telescope is one of several research telescopes that are part of the University of Texas at Austin observatory perched atop Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of west Texas...
and
Hobby-Eberly TelescopeThe Hobby-Eberly Telescope is a 9.2-meter aperture telescope located at the McDonald Observatory. It combines a number of features that differentiate it from most telescope designs, resulting in greatly lowered construction costs...
at
McDonald ObservatoryThe McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near the unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Fowlkes and Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas....
of the University of Texas.
Telescopes that have observed XO-1
- 2004 XO cameras, Hawaii, USA, McCullough, transits
- 2004 SuperWASP
SuperWASP is performing an ultra-wide angle search for transiting extrasolar planets with the aim of covering the entire sky down to ~15th magnitude....
-North, La Palma, Spain, Pollacco, transits
- 2005.06.23 0.34m telescope, Maine, USA, Howell, photometric transit data
- 2005.07.12 0.35m telescope, Landen, Belgium, Vanmunster, photometric transit data
- 2006.03.18 0.34m telescope, Maine, USA, Howell, photometric transit data
- 2006.02 Harlan J Smith telescope, Texas, USA, Johns-Krull, spectra
- 2006.02 Hobby Eberly Telescope, Texas, USA, McCullough, spectra
- 2006.04.06 0.35m telescope, Landen, Belgium, Vanmunster, photometric transit data
- 2006.06.01 Keck telescope, Hawaii, USA, Liu, adaptive optics
See also
- XO Telescope
The XO Telescope is a telescope located on the 3054 m summit of Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii, formed by a pair of 200 mm telephoto lenses. It is used to detect extrasolar planets using the transit method. It is similar to the TrES survey telescope...
or XO
- SuperWASP
SuperWASP is performing an ultra-wide angle search for transiting extrasolar planets with the aim of covering the entire sky down to ~15th magnitude....
or WASP
- List of extrasolar planets
External links