A
visual bandlight curve for GQ Lupi. The main plot (from
ASAS data[1]), shows the long-term variability, and the inset plot (adapted from Broeg et al.[2]) shows the short-term periodic brightness variation.
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.[8] 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."[9]GQ Lupi b is listed as "confirmed planet" as in 2020.[10]
In 2020, another low-mass companion of GQ Lupi was discovered at a separation distance of about 16 arcseconds, or 2400 AU. Designated 2MASS J15491331-3539118 under the
2MASS catalogue, it is likely a young stellar object that is gravitationally bound to its primary star. It is estimated to be approximately 15% the Sun's mass and 21% the Sun's radius. It has an effective temperature of about 3190 K, indicating that it is a
red dwarf with the spectral type M4.[11]
^
abcAstrometric and photometric monitoring of GQ Lupi and its sub-stellar companion, Ralph Neuhaeuser, Markus Mugrauer, Andreas Seifahrt, Tobias Schmidt, and Nikolaus Vogt, Astronomy and Astrophysics484, #1 (2008), pp. 281–291.
doi:
10.1051/0004-6361:20078493.
Bibcode:
2008A&A...484..281N
^
abPlanet : GQ Lup b, Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Accessed on line June 13, 2008
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 Nachrichten326, #10 (December 2005), pp. 958–963.
doi:
10.1002/asna.200510461.
Bibcode:
2005AN....326..958G