Overview
- The planet, designated HD 143811 AB b, was uncovered by reanalyzing 2016–2019 Gemini Planet Imager data and confirmed with additional observations, with parallel confirmation by an independent team.
- Results were published December 11 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, alongside an independent paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
- The system lies about 446 light-years away, hosting a young gas giant of roughly 5.6–6 Jupiter masses with a temperature near 1,042 K.
- The host stars complete an 18-day orbit around each other, while the planet circles both stars in roughly 300 years and sits closer to its suns than any other directly imaged circumbinary planet.
- Astronomers plan continued monitoring, new archival searches, and observations with the upgraded GPI 2.0 to refine the planet’s and binary’s orbits and probe its uncertain formation pathway.