Additional evidence that Fomalhaut b might be a non-exoplanet Journal Articles

abstract

• ABSTRACT Fomalhaut b is an extrasolar object that was imaged directly in 2008. Its status since has changed from exoplanet – including super-Earth and low-mass candidates – to neutron star to dust cloud, generating contention, controversy, and confusion. We contribute to the discussion by reporting additional evidence that, given a set containing celestial objects classified as exoplanets, Fomalhaut b might be a non-member. We conducted a principal component (PC) analysis on a data set containing 425 extrasolar objects and 7 variables and found a single isolated point in PC space representing Fomalhaut b. Whatever its existential status, Fomalhaut b is characterized by properties very different from those characterizing exoplanets.

authors

• Del Vecchio, Alexa
• Stone, Jonathon

status

• published 

publication date

• November 22, 2022

has subject area

• 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences (FoR)

published in

• Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters  Journal

keywords

• Astronomy & Astrophysics
• CLOUD
• ORBIT
• Physical Sciences
• Science & Technology
• astrobiology
• methods: data analysis
• planets and satellites: fundamental parameters

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1093/mnrasl/slac098

start page

• L80

end page

• L82

volume

• 518

issue

• 1