XO-1b
Extrasolar planet in the constellation Corona Borealis / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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XO-1b is an extrasolar planet approximately 536 light-years away from Earth.
Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | Peter R. McCullough et al.[1] |
Discovery site | Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii[1] |
Discovery date | 18 May 2006[2] |
Transit and Radial velocity[1] | |
Orbital characteristics | |
0.04930+0.00091 −0.00096 AU | |
Eccentricity | <0.019[3] |
3.94150685±0.00000091[4] d | |
Inclination | 88.8 ± 0.2[4] |
Semi-amplitude | 116 ± 9[1] |
Star | XO-1 |
Physical characteristics | |
Mean radius | 1.21 ± 0.03[4] RJ |
Mass | 0.913±0.038[3] MJ |
Mean density | 0.64 ± 0.05 g/cm3 (0.0231 ± 0.0018 lb/cu in)[4] |
15.8 ± 1.5 m/s2 (51.8 ± 4.9 ft/s2)[5] | |
The planet XO-1b is named Negoiu. The name was selected in the NameExoWorlds campaign by Romania, during the 100th anniversary of the IAU. Negoiu is the second highest peak in Romania.[6][7]
In 2006, the XO Project, an international team of professional and amateur astronomers, discovered a Jupiter-sized planet, later named XO-1b, orbiting a Sun-like star.[1] The team, led by Peter R. McCullough of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, had four amateur astronomers hailing from North America and Europe.[8] An independent confirmation of the planet was made by the Wide Angle Search for Planets project later that same year.[9]
The XO Project team employed the relatively inexpensive XO Telescope, made from commercial equipment, to search for extrasolar planets.[2] This telescope is on the Hawaiian Island of Maui.[10]
From September 2003 to September 2005, the XO Telescope detected tens of thousands of bright stars. In that time, McCullough's team of amateur astronomers studied a few dozen stars they had previously identified as promising candidates for extrasolar planets. The star XO-1, in particular, was marked as a promising candidate in June 2005. The amateur astronomers observed it from June to July 2005, eventually confirming that a planet-sized object was eclipsing it. McCullough's team then turned to the McDonald Observatory in Texas for information on the object's mass and to confirm it was a planet.[1]