College of Charleston Assistant Professor Joe Carson is a member of an international team of scientist who recently discovered a new planet.

Orbiting a sun-like star, this newly-discovered planet is the least massive ever to be imaged around another star. This planet called “GJ 504 b” marks an important step toward the direct imaging of much  fainter earth-like planets in the future and may lead to new models of planet formation.

Exoplants are planets orbiting stars other than our Sun, outside of our solar system.  Most of the 715 exoplanet systems reported thus far have been discovered by indirect observation techniques.

In contrast, direct imaging may be the most important way to observe exoplanets, because it yields the most complete information about the planet’s luminosity, temperature, atmosphere and orbit.  However, this method is technically challenging, because these distant planets are not on only faint, but also close to their bright central stars.  Because of this, only a handful of exoplanets have ever been successfully imaged.

Carson says these discoveries give us a better perspective on our own solar system.

“The discovery of GJ 504 b is particularly exciting in part because the planet orbits a star that is very similar to our own Sun, in terms of star mass and temperature. In a sense, we are seeing a twin of our own Sun, complete with its own Jupiter-like planet. This interesting property combines with the fact that the discovered planet is the coldest and lowest mass planet ever imaged around a sun-like star. Discoveries like this help bring us closer to imaging complete analogs of our own solar system, along with observed conditions that may be favorable for the development of life.”

This is not the first time Carson has been involved in the discovery of a planet.  Last year Carson and two College of Charleston undergraduate students led the direct imaging discovery of another new extrasolar planet.

“I feel very lucky to be able to help open a window onto new worlds,” says Carson. “ It is also exciting to know that these discoveries are just the beginning. Our vision of the universe around us, and the planets that inhabit it, are expanding almost every day.”