Spin-orbit alignment of the $\beta$ Pictoris planetary system

TL;DR

This study measures the spin-orbit alignment of the directly-imaged exoplanet $eta$ Pictoris b, revealing a well-aligned system that offers insights into planetary formation and dynamical evolution.

Contribution

First measurement of spin-orbit alignment for a wide-separation exoplanet using infrared interferometry, demonstrating a method to probe planetary system formation.

Findings

$eta$ Pic b orbits on a prograde, well-aligned orbit.

Stellar spin, planetary orbit, and debris disk are aligned within 3±5°.

Results support formation scenarios with minimal primordial misalignment.

Abstract

A crucial diagnostic that can tell us about processes involved in the formation and dynamical evolutionof planetary systems is the angle between the rotation axis of a star and a planet's orbital angular momentum vector ("spin-orbit" alignment or "obliquity"). Here we present the first spin-orbit alignment measurement for a wide-separation exoplanetary system, namely on the directly-imaged planet $\beta$ Pictoris b. We use VLTI/GRAVITY spectro-interferometry with an astrometric accuracy of 1 $\mu$as (microarcsecond) in the Br$\gamma$ photospheric absorption line to measure the photocenter displacement associated with the stellar rotation. Taking inclination constraints from astroseismology into account, we constrain the 3-dimensional orientation of the stellar spin axis and find that $\beta$ Pic b orbits its host star on a prograde orbit. The angular momentum vectors of the stellar photosphere, the planet, and the outer debris disk are well-aligned with mutual inclinations $<3\pm5^{\circ}$, which indicates that $\beta$ Pic b formed in a system without significant primordial misalignments. Our results demonstrate the potential of infrared interferometry to measure the spin-orbit alignment for wide-separation planetary systems, probing a highly complementary regime to the parameter space accessible with the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. If the low obliquity is confirmed by measurements on a larger sample of wide-separation planets, it would lend support to theories that explain the obliquity in Hot Jupiter systems with dynamical scattering and the Kozai-Lidov mechanism.