An international team of astronomers, using the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope have discovered a planetary mass companion orbiting a nearby star. Prof. Michael Meyer is a member of the team and comments on the discovery in this Michigan News press release.
Image of the planet HIP 65426b (bottom left), produced with the SPHERE instrument. SPHERE has physically blocked out light from the central star (blocked-out region marked by circle) in order for the planets much weaker light to become detectable. The light received from the planet allows deductions about its properties – in this case the presence of water vapor and reddish clouds. Image: Chauvin et al. / SPHERE
The preprint article is out today: https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.01413