For the second star in the Fomalhaut system, see TW Piscis Austrini.
Parts of this article (those related to the difference between the planetary and cloud debris models, and why most recent analysis does not place this object in a bound orbit around Fomalhaut) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(March 2022)
Fomalhaut b
Fomalhaut b as observed from 2004 to 2014. Previously thought to be an exoplanet, it is now known to be an expanding dust cloud.
Discovery
Discovered by
Kalas et al.[1]
Discovery site
Hubble Space Telescope
Discovery date
November 13, 2008
Detection method
Direct imaging
Orbital characteristics
Star
Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut b, formally named Dagon (/ˈdeɪɡən/),[2] is a directly imaged extrasolar object and former candidate planet observed near the A-type main-sequence star Fomalhaut, approximately 25 light-years away in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus. The object's discovery was initially announced in 2008 and confirmed in 2012 via images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope. Under the working hypothesis that the object was a planet, it was reported in January 2013[3][4] that it had a highly elliptical orbit with a period of 1,700 Earth years.[5] The object was one of those selected by the International Astronomical Union as part of NameExoWorlds, their public process for giving proper names to exoplanets.[6][7] The process involved public nomination and voting for the new name.[8] In December 2015, the IAU announced the winning name was Dagon.[9][10][11]
The planetary hypothesis has since fallen out of favor; more gathered data suggested a dust or debris cloud is far more likely, and the object was placed on an escape trajectory.[12] In 2023, a team of researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI to probe the complex dust environment around the Fomalhaut. They discovered a new intermediate dust belt that might be shepherded by an unseen planet and suggested that the blob, Fomalhaut b, could've originated in this belt. The recent research of the Fomalhaut system used the JWST's NIRCam equipped with coronagraphs to probe the complex dust ring in different wavelengths of infrared light. The absence of detection in certain wavelengths support the idea that Fomalhaut b isn't a massive planet but rather a dust cloud resulting from a collision among planetesimals.[13][14]
^Cite error: The named reference Kalas2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Dagon". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^Cite error: The named reference NASA-20130108a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference NASA-20130108b was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Kalas2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^NameExoWorlds: An IAU Worldwide Contest to Name Exoplanets and their Host Stars. IAU.org. 9 July 2014
^NameExoWorlds Archived 2018-06-25 at the Wayback Machine.
^NameExoWorlds Archived 2015-08-15 at the Wayback Machine.
^Final Results of NameExoWorlds Public Vote Released, International Astronomical Union, 15 December 2015.
^"SCSU planetarium names an exoplanet". St. Cloud Times. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
^"NameExoWorlds The Approved Names". Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
^Cite error: The named reference PNAS-20200420 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Ygouf, Marie; Beichman, Charles; Llop-Sayson, Jorge; Bryden, Geoffrey; Leisenring, Jarron; Gaspar, Andras; Krist, John; Rieke, Marcia; Rieke, George (2024). "Searching for Planets Orbiting Fomalhaut with JWST/NIRCam". The Astronomical Journal. 167 (1): 26. arXiv:2310.15028. Bibcode:2024AJ....167...26Y. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad08c8.
^Gough, Evan; Today, Universe. "JWST searches for planets in the Fomalhaut system". phys.org. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
Fomalhautb, formally named Dagon (/ˈdeɪɡən/), is a directly imaged extrasolar object and former candidate planet observed near the A-type main-sequence...
8 degrees. Fomalhaut was the first stellar system with an extrasolar planet candidate imaged at visible wavelengths, designated Fomalhautb. However, analyses...
TW Piscis Austrini (also known as FomalhautB) is a main sequence star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. It lies relatively close to the Sun, at...
part of the Fomalhaut system, giving it the name Fomalhaut C. The star has a mass of 0.2 M☉, while Fomalhaut A is 1.9 M☉, and FomalhautB is 0.7 M☉. The...
extrabiblical evidence confirming this. The extrasolar object designated Fomalhautb is named after Dagon. Multiple origins have been proposed for Dagan's...
extrasolar ring system has been found by this method, around HIP 41378 f. Fomalhautb was found to be large and unclearly defined when detected in 2008. This...
brighter than 4th magnitude: Fomalhaut, which is 1st magnitude and the 18th-brightest star in the night sky. Fomalhaut is surrounded by a circumstellar...
debris disk and at least four massive planets. Those planets, along with Fomalhautb, were the first exoplanets whose orbital motion was confirmed by direct...
sea), and the planet Epsilon Eridani b was named AEgir (after Ægir, Rán's husband), while the planet Fomalhautb was named Dagon (after Dagon, an ancient...
orbital motion around the star Fomalhaut, at a distance of 25 light years from Earth. The planet is referred to as Fomalhautb. Kalas was born in New York...
HST data and modeling reveal a massive planetesimal collision around Fomalhaut". PNAS. 117 (18): 9712–9722. arXiv:2004.08736. Bibcode:2020PNAS..117.9712G...
names often attributed to other components in a physical multiple (e.g., FomalhautB) are treated as unofficial (albeit described as "useful nicknames"),...
Sometimes these disks contain prominent rings, as seen in the image of Fomalhaut on the right. Debris disks are found around stars with mature planetary...
and HD 188753C, a red dwarf. B and C orbit each other every 156 days, and, as a group, orbit A every 25.7 years. Fomalhaut (α PsA, α Piscis Austrini) is...
example, none of the gas giants of the Fomalhaut system correspond with the detected properties of Fomalhautb. A handful of entirely fictional systems...
planet to the star rather than a background object aligned by chance. Fomalhautb: On November 13, NASA and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory...
low-mass star instead of a planet. The brightness of optical images of Fomalhautb could be due to starlight reflecting off a circumplanetary ring system...
used with the Hubble Space Telescope to image the possible exoplanet FomalhautB (ref K.) and will be used by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to...
on the Keck II telescope in Hawaii, and had been planning to observe Fomalhautb, but they spent some of their time looking at the Jupiter impact. Infrared...
and carbon monoxide in the planetary atmosphere was announced in 2021. Fomalhautb Value given assuming the planet's orbit is circular and is being observed...
confirming or disproving the presence of methane in HR 8799 b's atmosphere. Fomalhautb Calculated from the separations in the East and North directions...
atmosphere was made with the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC). Fomalhautb The lower limit on the eccentricity is given for the case that the planet...
A0Ib – Eta Leonis A0Ia – HD 21389 A1V – Sirius A A2Ia – Deneb A3Va – Fomalhaut F-type stars have strengthening spectral lines H and K of Ca II. Neutral...
exist. In May 2023, the James Webb Space Telescope provided images of Fomalhaut, a young star positioned 25 light-years (ly) away from Earth. Scientists...
"Identification of a Constellation from a Position". Retrieved 2006-12-26. Gould, B. A. "Uranometria Argentina". Reprinted and updated by Pilcher, F. Archived...
contains about 16 stars, including Alpha Librae, Alpha Cephei, Castor, Fomalhaut and Vega. All members of the group are moving in nearly the same direction...
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