The Gemini Planet Imager is a dedicated facility for directly imaging and spectroscopically characterizing extrasolar planets. It combines a very high-order adaptive optics system, a diffractionsuppressing coronagraph, and an integral field spectrograph with low spectral resolution but high spatial resolution. Every aspect of the Gemini Planet Imager has been tuned for maximum sensitivity to faint planets near bright stars. During first-light observations, we achieved an estimated H band Strehl ratio of 0.89 and a 5-σ contrast of 10 6 at 0.75 arcseconds and 10 5 at 0.35 arcseconds. Observations of Beta Pictoris clearly detect the planet, Beta Pictoris b, in a single 60-s exposure with minimal postprocessing. Beta Pictoris b is observed at a separation of 434 ± 6 milliarcseconds (mas) and position angle 211.8 ± 0.5°. Fitting the Keplerian orbit of Beta Pic b using the new position together with previous astrometry gives a factor of 3 improvement in most parameters over previous solutions. The planet orbits at a semimajor axis of 9:0 +0:8 −0:4 AU near the 3:2 resonance with the previously known 6-AU asteroidal belt and is aligned with the inner warped disk. The observations give a 4% probability of a transit of the planet in late 2017.high-contrast imaging | extreme adaptive optics | debris disks D irect imaging is a powerful complement to indirect exoplanet detection techniques. In direct imaging, the planet is spatially resolved from its star, allowing it to be independently studied. This capability opens up new regions of parameter space, including sensitivity to planets at >5 AU. It also allows spectroscopic analysis of the light emitted or reflected by the planet to determine its composition (1, 2) and astrometry to determine the full Keplerian orbital elements (3, 4).Imaging planets is extremely challenging-Jupiter is 10 9 times fainter than our sun in reflected visible light. Younger extrasolar planets are more favorable targets. During their formation, planets are heated by the release of gravitational potential energy. Depending on the exact formation process and initial conditions, a 4-Jupiter mass ðM J Þ planet at an age of 10 million years could have a luminosity between 10 −6 and 2 × 10 −5 L ⊙ (5), but this is still a formidable contrast ratio. To overcome this, astronomers combined large telescopes (to reduce the impact of diffraction), adaptive optics (to correct for phase errors induced by atmospheric turbulence), and sophisticated image processing (6, 7). This recipe in various combinations had achieved several notable successes (8-12). However, the rate of these discoveries remains low (13-15) in part because the number of suitable young stars in the solar neighborhood is low, and for all but the closest stars, such detection is limited to >20 AU, where planets may be relatively rare. To move beyond this limited sample, dedicated instruments are needed that are designed specifically for high-contrast imaging. One such instrument is the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). GPI is a fully optimized high-con...

We present the first results from the polarimetry mode of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), which uses a new integral field polarimetry architecture to provide high contrast linear polarimetry with minimal systematic biases between the orthogonal polarizations. We describe the design, data reduction methods, and performance of polarimetry with GPI. Point spread function subtraction via differential polarimetry suppresses unpolarized starlight by a factor of over 100, and provides sensitivity to circumstellar dust reaching the photon noise limit for these observations. In the case of the circumstellar disk around HR 4796A, GPI's advanced adaptive optics system reveals the disk clearly even prior to PSF subtraction. In polarized light, the disk is seen all the way in to its semi-minor axis for the first time. The disk exhibits surprisingly strong asymmetry in polarized intensity, with the west side 9 times brighter than the east side despite the fact that the east side is slightly brighter in total intensity. Based on a synthesis of the total and polarized intensities, we now believe that the west side is closer to us, contrary to most prior interpretations. Forward scattering by relatively large silicate dust particles leads to the strong polarized intensity on the west side, and the ring must be slightly optically thick in order to explain the lower brightness in total intensity there. These findings suggest that the ring is geometrically narrow and dynamically cold, perhaps shepherded by larger bodies in the same manner as Saturn's F ring.

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During the first-light run of the Gemini Planet Imager we obtained K-band spectra of exoplanets HR 8799 c and d. Analysis of the spectra indicates that planet d may be warmer than planet c. Comparisons to recent patchy cloud models and previously obtained observations over multiple wavelengths confirm that thick clouds combined with horizontal variation in the cloud cover generally reproduce the planets' spectral energy distributions. When combined with the 3 to 4 μm photometric data points, the observations provide strong constraints on the atmospheric methane content for both planets. The data also provide further evidence that future modeling efforts must include cloud opacity, possibly including cloud holes, disequilibrium chemistry, and super-solar metallicity.