astronomy

GU Piscium b

GU Piscium b is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand GU Piscium b rather than just read about it. In short: GU Piscium b (GU Psc b) is a directly imaged planetary-mass companion orbiting the star GU Piscium, with an extremely large orbit of 2,000 AU (3.0×1011 km), and an apparent angular separation of 42 arc seconds. The planet is located at right ascension 01h 12m 36.48s declination +17° 04′ 31.8″ at a distance of 48 pc (160 ly).

Key takeaways

GU Piscium b belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect GU Piscium b to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of GU Piscium b from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

GU Piscium b (GU Psc b) is a directly imaged planetary-mass companion orbiting the star GU Piscium, with an extremely large orbit of 2,000 AU (3.0×1011 km), and an apparent angular separation of 42 arc seconds. The planet is located at right ascension 01h 12m 36.48s declination +17° 04′ 31.8″ at a distance of 48 pc (160 ly).

Properties An orbital revolution around its parent star (which is 1/3 the mass of the Sun) or "year", would take approximately 163,000 years to complete, considering a circular orbit with 2000 AU as the semi-major axis. It is a gas giant located in the constellation of Pisces, 155 light-years from the Solar System, and estimated to have a mass nine to thirteen times that of Jupiter, and a surface temperature of 1000 K. It is a relatively young stellar system, part of the AB Doradus moving group of ca. 30 main stars created from the same molecular cloud less than 100 million years ago, and the only one found among the 90 stars of the group examined. The spectral type was initially determined to be T3.5 ±1. This team also found that it is a weak binary candidate. A later work found it more similar to known tight binary T-dwarfs and assigned a spectral type of T2+T8. This object was found to be variable. First a study with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope found a rotation period of around 6 hours and an amplitude of 4 ±1% on 2014 October 11. On two other occasions this object was not variable. Later the variability was studied with Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 at 1.1-1.67 μm. GU Psc b showed variability with an amplitude of 2.7% and a rotation period of around 8 hours. The largely gray light curve modulation show that this object has heterogeneous clouds.

Discovery The discovery was made by an international team of astronomers led by Marie-Eve Naud of the Université de Montréal in Quebec, combining observations from telescopes of the Gemini Observatory, the Mont Mégantic Observatory (OMM), the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and the W. M. Keck Observatory. Its large distance away from its parent star permitted the use of combined infrared and visible light images to detect it, a technique astronomers hope to reproduce to discover much closer planets with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) in Chile. Near-infrared spectroscopy of the companion was obtained with the GNIRS spectrograph on the Gemini North Telescope, which shows evidence of low surface gravity confirming the planet's youth. Weak methane absorption was detected in H and K band corresponding to a spectral type of T3.5.

See also List of exoplanet extremes List of directly imaged exoplanets CFBDSIR 2149−0403 - Possible rogue planet in the AB Doradus moving group WD 0806−661 B

Notes

References

External links IOPscience: DISCOVERY OF A WIDE PLANETARY-MASS COMPANION TO THE YOUNG M3 STAR GU PSC arXiv: Discovery of a wide planetary-mass companion to the young M3 star GU Psc NASA ADS: Discovery of a Wide Planetary-mass Companion to the Young M3 Star GU Psc

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with GU Piscium b

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what GU Piscium b claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to GU Piscium b before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about GU Piscium b ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of GU Piscium b

In research: GU Piscium b appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses GU Piscium b in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: GU Piscium b is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Exoplanets detected by direct imaging, Exoplanets discovered in 2014, Pisces (constellation), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for GU Piscium b outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study GU Piscium b in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what GU Piscium b means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain GU Piscium b out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is GU Piscium b in simple terms?

Why does GU Piscium b matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study GU Piscium b?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on GU Piscium b.