The Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign: Deep Imaging of Stars in the Solar Neighborhood

Details The Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign: Deep Imaging of Stars in the Solar Neighborhood The Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign: Deep Imaging of Stars in the Solar Neighborhood

Jan 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21544903b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #449.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.457

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The novel Near Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI) on the 8-m Gemini South telescope combines a number of techniques to attenuate starlight and suppress superspeckles for direct detection of exoplanets: 1) Lyot coronagraphic imaging, 2) dual channel imaging for Spectral Differential Imaging (SDI) and 3) operation in a fixed Cassegrain rotator mode for Angular Differential Imaging (ADI). The combination of these techniques allows unprecedented contrasts of dmag > 14 (median value) at 1" in H band. We are currently conducting a 50 night planet-finding campaign using NICI. Although the majority of our survey targets are young (<300 Myr, so as to catch young planets while they are still self-luminous), we are also observing a subset of nearby stars in the immediate solar neighborhood. While these objects are old (and hence, planetary companions will be faint), they are still desirable targets for planet searches due to the excellent physical resolution possible around these stars. Additionally, their large proper motions also mean that planet candidates can be quickly confirmed. NICI is the first instrument with achieved star-planet contrasts high enough to image supergiant planets around these stars (M > 10 MJup). Here, we report on results from observations of 3 such nearby stars. At respective distances of 1.39 pc, 2.35 pc, and 3.8 pc, Proxima Centauri, Wolf 359, and Luyten's Star are the 1st, 3rd, and 22nd closest stars to the Sun. While our search yielded numerous candidate companions, especially around Proxima Centauri, all of these candidates were found to be background in second epoch observations.

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