GQ Lupi

GQ Lupi is a T Tauri variable star approximately 500 light-years away in the constellation of Lupus. The star is young and has about 70% of the Sun's mass.

Possible planetary system

In 2005, Ralph Neuhäuser and his colleagues reported a substellar object, GQ Lupi b, orbiting the star. Along with 2M1207b, this was one of the first extrasolar planet candidates to be directly imaged. The image was made with the VLT telescope at Paranal Observatory, Chile, on June 25, 2004. Depending on its mass and the definition of a planet, GQ Lupi b may or may not be considered a planet. As of 2006, the International Astronomical Union Working Group on Extrasolar Planets described GQ Lupi b as a "possible planetary-mass companion to a young star."

References

External links

• The low-mass companion of GQ Lup, E.W. Guenther, R. Neuhaeuser, G. Wuchterl, M. Mugrauer, A. Bedalov, and P.H. Hauschildt, Astronomische Nachrichten 326, #10 (December 2005), pp. 958–963. .
• R. Neuhaeuser (2005). . arXiv:astro-ph/0509906v1.

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