HD 95086 b
Directly imaged young giant planet with a debris disk system.
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HD 95086 b, also known as Levantes, is a confirmed exoplanet that has been directly imaged. It orbits the young, 17-million-year-old A-class pre-main-sequence star HD 95086, which is also named Aiolos. The planet has about five times the mass of Jupiter and orbits its star at a distance of roughly 70 astronomical units. It was first spotted in 2012 using the NACO instrument on the VLT, observing at a thermal infrared wavelength of 3.8 μm.
Discovery
Follow-up observations in 2013 confirmed the planet is bound to the star, not a background object. Its brightness at that wavelength, combined with upper limits at shorter wavelengths, matches the pattern seen in other young directly imaged planets, such as those around HR 8799. A color index of at least 3.1 magnitudes between 1.65 and 3.8 μm rules out background stars and most brown dwarfs.
The host star was long thought to belong to the Lower Centaurus Crux star-forming region, but has since been tentatively reassigned with 71% probability to the Carina association. It has a mass of 1.6 solar masses, making it a late A-type star, and lies about 90 parsecs away in the constellation Carina.
The system also contains a debris disk, detected at submillimeter wavelengths and resolved in the far-infrared by the Herschel Space Observatory. Spatially resolved images from Herschel suggest a possible two-belt structure with a large gap between them, similar to the HR 8799 system. HD 95086 b likely carved the sharp inner edge of the outer disk, but additional planets may occupy the rest of the gap.
Physical properties
The planet is a strong candidate for having formed closer to its star and then been scattered outward through gravitational interactions with other massive bodies, such as planets or planetesimals in the debris disk. Its atmosphere contains abundant dust, likely small sub-micrometer forsterite grains, and the planet appears very red, possibly due to a circumplanetary disk. However, coronagraphic imaging with MIRI observations disfavor the presence of such a disk.
Nomenclature
In June 2023, as part of the third NameExoWorlds project, the planet was named Levantes—from a modern Greek word for easterly Mediterranean winds—and its host star was named Aiolos, after a figure in Greek mythology. The names were proposed by a team from Greece.
Lore & Background
HD 95086 b was initially detected in data taken in 2012 at a separation of about 56 AU from its host star. It was recovered at high signal-to-noise ratio in June 2013, and astrometry from January 2012, March 2013, and June 2013 confirmed it is gravitationally bound to the star rather than a background object. Its brightness at 3.8 μm, combined with upper limits at shorter wavelengths, is consistent with trends seen for other young directly imaged planets such as those around HR 8799. The lower limit of its 1.65–3.8 μm color of 3.1 magnitudes excludes background stars and most brown dwarfs.
The host star was considered a highly probable member of the Lower Centaurus Crux star forming region, until tentatively reassigned with 71% probability to the Carina association. Spatially resolved images from the Herschel Space Observatory show evidence for a possible two-belt debris disk system with a large clearing between the belts, similar to HR 8799. HD 95086 b is probably responsible for carving the sharp inner edge of the outer disk, though additional planets in the gap remain a strong possibility.
The atmosphere of HD 95086 b contains large amounts of dust, likely small sub-micrometer forsterite grains. The planet appears very red in color, possibly due to a circumplanetary disk, though coronagraphic imaging with MIRI observations disfavor the presence of such a disk.
Reader's Guide
HD 95086 b is significant as a directly imaged exoplanet that provides a laboratory for studying planet formation and dynamical evolution at wide orbital separations. Its large mass (roughly 5 Jupiter masses) and orbital radius (about 70 AU) make it a viable candidate for a planet that formed closer to its host star and was later scattered outward via gravitational interactions with other massive bodies, such as planets or planetesimals in the debris disk. This scattering mechanism has been investigated for over-dense fluid elements in protoplanetary disks containing a planet.
The system's resolved debris disk, with a possible two-belt structure and a gap likely shaped by the planet, offers insight into planetary system architecture and the role of giant planets in carving disk features. The planet's red color and dusty atmosphere, dominated by sub-micrometer forsterite grains, contribute to understanding atmospheric composition and dust processes in young giant planets. Its inclusion in the NameExoWorlds project (2022–2023) gave it the formal name Levantes, from a modern Greek word for easterly Mediterranean winds, while its host star was named Aiolos after a Greek mythological figure.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: HD 95086 b (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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