The Gemini Planet Imager: First Light

Abstract

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a dedicated facility for directly imaging and spectroscopically characterizing extrasolar planets. It combines a very high-order adaptive optics system, a diffraction-suppressing coronagraph, and an integral field spectrograph with low spectral resolution but high spatial resolution. Every aspect of GPI has been tuned for maximum sensitivity to faint planets near bright stars. During first light observations, we achieved an estimated H band Strehl ratio of 0.89 and a 5-sigma contrast of $10^6$ at 0.75 arcseconds and $10^5$ at 0.35 arcseconds. Observations of Beta Pictoris clearly detect the planet, Beta Pictoris b, in a single 60-second exposure with minimal post-processing. Beta Pictoris b is observed at a separation of $434\pm 6$ milli-arcseconds and position angle $211.8\pm 0.5$ deg. Fitting the Keplerian orbit of Beta Pic b using the new position together with previous astrometry gives a factor of three improvement in most parameters over previous solutions. The planet orbits at a semi-major axis of $9.0_{-0.4}^{+0.8}$ AU near the 3:2 resonance with the previously-known 6 AU asteroidal belt and is aligned with the inner warped disk. The observations give a 4% posterior probability of a transit of the planet in late 2017.

9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci

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• Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
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Cited by in corpus (46)

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• Gaia's potential for the discovery of circumbinary planets
• Deep Thermal Infrared Imaging of HR 8799 bcde: New Atmospheric Constraints and Limits on a Fifth Planet
• Gemini Planet Imager Observational Calibrations I: Overview of the GPI Data Reduction Pipeline
• The Inner Disk Structure, Disk-Planet Interactions, and Temporal Evolution in the Beta Pictoris System: A Two-Epoch HST/STIS Coronagraphic Study
• The California Planet Survey IV: A Planet Orbiting the Giant Star HD 145934 and Updates to Seven Systems with Long-Period Planets
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• The LEECH Exoplanet Imaging Survey. Further constraints on the planet architecture of the HR 8799 system
• Gemini Planet Imager Observational Calibrations V: Astrometry and Distortion
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• The Fate of Scattered Planets
• Formation of Super-Earth Mass Planets at 125-250 AU from a Solar-type Star
• Scattered Light from Dust in the Cavity of the V4046 Sgr Transition Disk
• An image-plane algorithm for JWST's non-redundant aperture mask data
• The VAST Survey - IV. A wide brown dwarf companion to the A3V star $\zeta$ Delphini
• New constraints on the dust surrounding HR 4796A
• Gemini Planet Imager Observational Calibrations IV: Wavelength Calibration and Flexure Correction for the Integral Field Spectrograph
• Early Results from VLT-SPHERE: Long-Slit Spectroscopy of 2MASS 0122-2439B, a Young Companion Near the Deuterium Burning Limit
• Gemini Planet Imager Observational Calibrations VI: Photometric and Spectroscopic Calibration for the Integral Field Spectrograph
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• Gemini Planet Imager Observational Calibrations II: Detector Performance and Calibration
• The Integral Field Spectrograph for the Gemini Planet Imager
• High contrast imaging at the LBT: the LEECH exoplanet imaging survey
• On-sky performance during verification and commissioning of the Gemini Planet Imager's adaptive optics system
• Gemini Planet Imager Observational Calibrations III: Empirical Measurement Methods and Applications of High-Resolution Microlens PSFs
• Direct imaging of exoplanets in the habitable zone with adaptive optics
• The InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) for TMT: Overview of innovative science programs
• On-sky vibration environment for the Gemini Planet Imager and mitigation effort
• Gemini Planet Imager One Button Approach
• CHARIS Science: Performance Simulations for the Subaru Telescope's Third-Generation of Exoplanet Imaging Instrumentation
• Characterization of the Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector of the Gemini Planet Imager
• High-contrast imager for Complex Aperture Telescopes (HiCAT): 2. Design overview and first light results
• Gemini Planet imager Observational Calibrations X: Non-Redundant Masking on GPI
• Automated Alignment and On-Sky Performance of the Gemini Planet Imager Coronagraph
• Gemini Planet Imager integration to the Gemini South telescope software environment
• On-sky low order non-common path correction of the GPI Calibration Unit
• Simulation of a method to directly image exoplanets around multiple stars systems
• Effects of differential wavefront sensor bias drifts on high contrast imaging