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On This Day: 51 Pegasi b Becomes First Exoplanet Discovery
October 5, 2020
By WeatherBug's Chris Sayles
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the discovery that would blow the mind of astronomers and set them on the path of exploration for new worlds.
51 Pegasi b was the first of many exoplanets to be discovered that orbits a star like that of our Sun. This discovery was made on October 6, 1995 when astrophysicist Michel Mayor and astronomer Didier Queloz utilized the ELODIE spectrograph, an advance spectrograph commonly used in the hunt for exoplanetary bodies, which showed reflected light from the planet. This ground-breaking discovery would land these trailblazing figures a Nobel Prize in Physics nearly 25 years later.
So, what makes this exoplanet so special, outside of it being the first planet found? Well, 51 Pegasi b or “51 Peg” for short is commonly compared to being like the planet Jupiter, since they are both gas giants. However, their differences are quite stark. In terms of their masses, 51 Peg is half as massive as Jupiter, but it is larger in size. On the other hand, the star that 51 Peg orbits is larger than our sun by nearly 25 percent and maintains a larger mass as well.
Even more surprising, it takes 51 Peg only 4 days to make a complete orbit of its star whereas Jupiter takes more than 4,300 Earth days to orbit our sun, a sum of about 12 Earth years! It should be noted that 51 Peg is closer to its star than our friendly-neighborhood Jupiter. This in turn leads to the mercury boiling to a temperature of 1800 degrees Fahrenheit on 51 Peg. What’s even more mind-blowing is that as 51 Peg rotates, it faces its star on the same side. This is phenomenon is known as synchronous rotation when one side of a planet is locked onto the orbiting star.
Although 51 Pegasi b was discovered towards the end of the 20th century, it would leave a lasting impact on the way exoplanet exploration was viewed. Many planets have been discovered outside of our solar system since this historical feat, and it is without a doubt that many more will be discovered. Who knows, maybe one day we will be able to visit the extrasolar planets that are among us. Although, if they are as hot as 51 Peg, then they may cause quite the sunburn.
Sources: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Story Image: "Greetings from your First Exoplanet" Poster from the NASA Exoplanets Exploration Program's Exoplanet Travel Bureau. (NASA/JPL-CalTech/Wikimedia Commons)