GQ Lupi is a T Tauri variable star

Star

A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

 approximately 500 light-year

Light-year

A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...

s away in the constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 of Lupus

Lupus (constellation)

Lupus is a constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for wolf. Lupus was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations...

. The star is young and has about 70% of the Sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

's mass.

Possible planetary system

In 2005, Ralph Neuhäuser and his colleagues reported a substellar object

Substellar object

A substellar object, sometimes called a lump, is an astronomical object whose mass is smaller than the smallest mass, approximately 0.08 solar masses, at which a star can sustain hydrogen fusion...

, GQ Lupi b

GQ Lupi b

GQ Lupi b is a possible extrasolar planet orbiting the star GQ Lupi. Its discovery was announced in April 2005. Along with 2M1207b, this was one of the first extrasolar planet candidates to be directly imaged...

, orbiting the star. Along with 2M1207b

2M1207b

2M1207b is a planetary-mass object orbiting the brown dwarf 2M1207, in the constellation Centaurus, approximately 170 light-years from Earth...

, this was one of the first extrasolar planet

Extrasolar planet

An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...

 candidates to be directly imaged. The image was made with the VLT telescope

Very Large Telescope

The Very Large Telescope is a telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The VLT consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2m across, which are generally used separately but can be used together to...

 at Paranal Observatory

Paranal Observatory

Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory located on Cerro Paranal at 2,635 m altitude and operated by the European Southern Observatory. The Very Large Telescope is the largest telescope on Paranal, actually composed of four separate 8.2 m telescopes...

, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, 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

International Astronomical Union

The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...

 Working Group on Extrasolar Planets described GQ Lupi b as a "possible planetary-mass companion to a young star."

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). "Homogeneous comparison of directly detected planet candidates: GQ Lup, 2M1207, AB Pic". arXiv:astro-ph/0509906v1.