CoRoT-1b (previously named CoRoT-Exo-1b) is a transiting

extrasolar planet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

approximately 2,630 light-years away in the constellation of

Monoceros Monoceros (Greek: Μονόκερως, "unicorn") is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, ...

. The planet was discovered orbiting the yellow dwarf star

CoRoT-1 CoRoT-1 is a Yellow dwarf star, yellow dwarf main sequence star similar to the Sun. The star is located approximately 2,630 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros (constellation), Monoceros. The apparent magnitude of this star ...

in May 2007. The planet was the first discovery by the French-led

CoRoT CoRoT (French: ; English: Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly th ...

Mission.

Discovery

CoRoT-1b was identified as the best planetary candidate from the CoRoT spacecraft initial run from February 6 to April 2, 2007. Follow-up photometry with the

Wise Observatory The Florence and George Wise Observatory (IAU code 097) is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Tel Aviv University. It is located west of the town of Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev desert near the edge of the Ramon Crater, and it is ...

s 1.0 m telescope and at the

Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope The Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is located near the summit of Mauna Kea mountain on Hawaii's Big Island at an altitude of 4,204 meters (13,793 feet), part of the Mauna Kea Observatory. Operational since 1979, the telescope is a Pri ...

eliminated many of the possible false positives for the transit signal. 9 radial velocity measurements of CoRoT-1 were made at

Haute-Provence Observatory The Haute-Provence Observatory (OHP, french: Observatoire de Haute-Provence) is an astronomical observatory in the southeast of France, about 90 km east of Avignon and 100 km north of Marseille. It was established in 1937 as a national ...

in March–April and October 2007 with the

SOPHIE échelle spectrograph The SOPHIE (Spectrographe pour l’Observation des Phénomènes des Intérieurs stellaires et des Exoplanètes, literally meaning "spectrograph for the observation of the phenomena of the stellar interiors and of the exoplanets") ''échelle spectrog ...

. The radial velocity data matched the CoRoT

light curve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude of light received on the y axis and with time on the x axis. The light is usually in a particular frequ ...

and supported the planetary nature of CoRoT-1b and eliminated other possibilities such as background stars, grazing

eclipsing binaries A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

, or a triple system. The discovery was publicly announced on May 3, 2007 and submitted for publication on January 4, 2008.

Characteristics

The planet is a large

hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere tem ...

, about 1.49 times the radius of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

and approximately 1.03 times as massive, based on ground observations of the star. Its large size is due to its low density combined with the intense heating of its parent star causing the outer layers of the atmosphere to bloat.

Observation of phases

In May 2009 CoRoT-1b became the first extrasolar planet for which optical (as opposed to

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

) observations of phases were reported. These observations suggest that there is not significant heat transfer between the (

tidally locked Tidal locking between a pair of co-orbiting astronomical bodies occurs when one of the objects reaches a state where there is no longer any net change in its rotation rate over the course of a complete orbit. In the case where a tidally locked bo ...

) night and day sides of the planet.

References

External links

* * {{Sky, 06, 48, 19.17, -, 03, 06, 07.78, 1560 Hot Jupiters Monoceros (constellation) Transiting exoplanets Giant planets Exoplanets discovered in 2007 1b

Discovery

Characteristics

Observation of phases

See also

References

External links