NICMOS Coronagraphic Surveys-Preliminary Results

Computer Science – Performance

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Scientific paper

A search for previously unknown low-mass (giant planet and brown dwarf) companions to stars in the solar neighborhood, and circumstellar dust disks around main sequence stars by direct coronagraphic imaging has been undertaken by the NICMOS Instrument Definition Team (IDT). Observations of a carefully selected candidate list of ~100 stars began on February 28, 1998, more than a year after the start of the NICMOS mission. Using a differential imaging strategy, as originally demonstrated in the second Servicing Mission/Observatory Verification (SMOV) program, we were able to achieve statistically significant detections of substellar companions at 1.6 micron with a Delta H of ~10 at separations as close as 0.5" (corresponding to 2.5 AU at 5 pc), with increasingly better performance at increasing radii. With nearly two dozen candidates now observed, and a better understanding of the focal plane stability and target acquisition precision we report on the efficacy of the program for detecting transitional objects into the 3 to 5 Jupiter mass regime.

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