BD+60 1417b is a confirmed

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...

discovered in the year 2021 using the imaging method. BD+60 1417b is the only known

in the system BD+60 1417, around 45

parsec The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (AU), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, and ...

s from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. BD+60 1417 is a young K0 star, while BD+60 1417 b has a late-L spectral type. The planet might be the first discovery of a directly imaged exoplanet found by a citizen scientist. Discovery of exoplanets involving amateurs are usually transiting exoplanets and are rarely discovered with other methods. Another example of a non-transiting exoplanet discovery by an amateur is the microlensing exoplanet Kojima-1Lb.

Discovery

Previous direct imaging planet-searching surveys with

Gemini Gemini most often refers to: * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Gemini (astrology), an astrological sign Gemini may also refer to: Science and technology Space * Gemini in Chinese astronomy, the Gemini constellat ...

, Keck and Palomar failed to detect an exoplanet around BD+60 1417. A co-moving source around the star was first spotted with the WiseView Tool by the

Backyard Worlds Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 is a NASA-funded citizen science project which is part of the Zooniverse (citizen science project), Zooniverse web portal. It aims to discover new brown dwarfs, faint objects that are less massive than stars, some of whi ...

citizen scientist Jörg Schümann. WiseView uses data from the

Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, List of observatory codes, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) was a NASA infrared astronomy Space observatory, space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009.. . WISE L ...

(WISE). Additional observations with optical spectroscopy of the star at the

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton (California), Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The ...

and infrared spectroscopy at NASA IRTF confirmed the presence of a young star with a planetary-mass companion around BD+60 1417. BD+60 1417b is the second directly imaged exoplanet the WISE-telescope was able to discover, after COCONUTS-2b.

Host Star

The host star BD+60 1417 is a young K0 star with a mass of 1 and a radius of 0.797 ±0.051 . It has a brightness of 9.37 magnitude. The star shows typical signs of youth, such as

x-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

detection with

ROSAT ROSAT (short for Röntgensatellit; in German X-rays are called Röntgenstrahlen, in honour of Wilhelm Röntgen) was a German Aerospace Center-led satellite X-ray telescope, with instruments built by West Germany, the United Kingdom and the Un ...

and

lithium Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...

absorption lines. Its age is estimated at 50-150 Million years. The star rotates with a period of 7.50 ± 0.86 days, which is seen due to evolving starspots in the TESS light curve. The host star was observed with the

Large Binocular Telescope The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) is an optical telescope for astronomy located on Mount Graham, in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona, United States. It is a part of the Mount Graham International Observatory. When using both ...

PEPSI instrument in 2023. This constrained several chemical abundances of the star, such as e/H= 0.27 ± 0.03 dex, C/O = 0.23 ± 0.12 and Mg/Si = 1.41 ± 0.19. BD+60 1417 is the only

main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a classification of stars which appear on plots of stellar color index, color versus absolute magnitude, brightness as a continuous and distinctive band. Stars on this band are known as main-sequence stars or d ...

star with about one solar mass that is orbited by a planetary-mass object at a separation larger than 1000 astronomical units. All other systems with a separation >1000 au have a primary with <0.5 solar masses or are the stellar remnant WD0806.

Physical properties

The infrared spectrum of the planet shows a red L8γ-type object with

water vapor Water vapor, water vapour, or aqueous vapor is the gaseous phase of Properties of water, water. It is one Phase (matter), state of water within the hydrosphere. Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation or boiling of liquid water or from th ...

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a poisonous, flammable gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...

iron(I) hydride Iron(I) hydride, systematically named iron hydride and poly(hydridoiron) is a solid inorganic compound with the chemical formula (also written or FeH). It is both thermodynamically and kinetically unstable toward decomposition at ambient temper ...

and

potassium iodide Potassium iodide is a chemical compound, medication, and dietary supplement. It is a medication used for treating hyperthyroidism, in radiation emergencies, and for protecting the thyroid gland when certain types of radiopharmaceuticals are u ...

in its atmosphere. In the near-infrared it is one of the reddest

substellar objects A substellar object, sometimes called a substar, is an astronomical object, the mass of which is smaller than the smallest mass at which hydrogen fusion can be sustained (approximately 0.08 solar masses). This definition includes brown dwarfs and f ...

discovered to date with

J-Ks = 2.72

mag. The spectrum of the exoplanet closely resembles objects with a suspected low surface gravity. A low surface gravity is a sign of youth for substellar objects. The researchers also found similarities with an archived SINFONI spectrum of the exoplanet

2M1207b 2M1207b is a planetary-mass object orbiting the brown dwarf 2M1207, in the constellation Centaurus, approximately 170 light-years from Earth. It is one of the first candidate exoplanets to be directly observed (by infrared imaging). It was disc ...

and spectra of the

HR 8799 HR 8799 is a roughly 30 million-year-old main sequence, main-sequence star located away from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus (constellation), Pegasus. It has roughly 1.5 times the Sun's mass and 4.9 times its lumino ...

exoplanets. The object was studied in 2024 and the team concluded that the model strongly favours a cloudy model over a cloudless model. Clouds of

forsterite Forsterite (Mg2SiO4; commonly abbreviated as Fo; also known as white olivine) is the magnesium-rich Endmember, end-member of the olivine solid solution series. It is Isomorphism (crystallography), isomorphous with the iron-rich end-member, fayalit ...

and

enstatite Enstatite is a mineral; the magnesium endmember of the pyroxene silicate mineral series enstatite (MgSiO3) – ferrosilite (FeSiO3). The magnesium rich members of the solid solution series are common rock-forming minerals found in igneous and m ...

should form on BD+60 1417b, if it has similar chemical abundances when compared to the host star.

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

clouds should not form on this object. The researchers find that BD+60 1417b is spectroscopically very similar to WISEP J004701.06+680352.1, to the point that they call them spectroscopic twins.

Orbit

The planet has an orbital period of about 95,000 years. BD+60 1417b has a large separation of 1662

astronomical units The astronomical unit (symbol: au or AU) is a unit of length defined to be exactly equal to . Historically, the astronomical unit was conceived as the average Earth-Sun distance (the average of Earth's aphelion and perihelion), before its mode ...

from its host star. If this exoplanet has formed in this wide orbit, it is likely to have formed similar to isolated

brown dwarfs Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that have more mass than the biggest gas giant planets, but less than the least massive main-sequence stars. Their mass is approximately 13 to 80 times that of Jupiter ()not big enough to sustain nuclear fu ...

. It could also have formed in a closer orbit around the star via core accretion or disk instability and was later dynamically disturbed into a higher orbit, for example by a planet-planet fly-by.

Status as an exoplanet

According to the

NASA Exoplanet Archive The NASA Exoplanet Archive is an online astronomical exoplanet catalog and data service that collects and serves public data that support the search for and characterization of extra-solar planets (exoplanets) and their host stars. It is part of ...

BD+60 1417b is an exoplanet and it falls within their definition: An object with a minimum mass lower than 30

Jupiter masses The Jupiter mass, also called Jovian mass, is the unit of mass equal to the total mass of the planet Jupiter. This value may refer to the mass of the planet alone, or the mass of the entire Jovian system to include the moons of Jupiter. Jupiter i ...

and a not free-floating object with sufficient follow-up. The official working definition by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

allows only exoplanets with a maximum mass of 13 Jupiter masses and according to current knowledge BD+60 1417b could be more massive than this limit.

References

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Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia (also known as Encyclopaedia of exoplanetary systems and Catalogue of Exoplanets) is an astronomy website, founded in Paris, France at the Meudon Observatory by Jean Schneider in February 1995, which maintains ...

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External links

Citizen Scientists Find Young Jupiter-Like Object Missed by Previous Searches
press-release by

AMNH The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interco ...

Visualisation of the BD+60 1417 system
at the NASA exoplanet website
BD+60 1417b
in the NASA Exoplanet Archive
BD+60 1417b
in the Extrasolar Planet Encyclopaedia Exoplanets detected by direct imaging Exoplanets discovered in 2021