The Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign: A Direct Imaging Search for Planets around Beta Pictoris and TW Hydra

Details The Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign: A Direct Imaging Search for Planets around Beta Pictoris and TW Hydra The Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign: A Direct Imaging Search for Planets around Beta Pictoris and TW Hydra

Jan 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21544902w&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #449.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.457

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present results of a direct imaging search for extrasolar planets around two of the nearest, youngest stars, Beta Pictoris (12 Myrs, 19.4 pc) and TW Hydrae (8 Myrs, 54 pc), using the Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI) on the Gemini-South 8-meter Telescope. The NICI instrument obtains high-contrast images of bright stars by combining a high-order curvature AO system with simultaneous use of Angular and Spectral Difference Imaging (ASDI) methods. We are currently carrying out a dedicated 50-night planet finding campaign to directly image and characterize gas-giant planets around a large, optimally-chosen sample of nearby stars. We do not detect the previously reported VLT/NACO L'-band candidate planet around Beta Pictoris, possibly because it's projected separation is much smaller now than at the epoch of its first detection in 2003. We also do not detect any planetary candidates around TW Hydra. Our observations represent the highest contrast images of these two systems to date and thus provide the most stringent upper limits on the masses of any planetary companions beyond a projected separation of 0.3'' from the central stars. The 5-sigma upper limits from our NICI data on a methane-bearing planet is 2 Mjup at 25 AU (0.5'') for TW Hydra and 4 Mjup at 10 AU (0.5'') for Beta Pictoris, assuming hot-start atmospheric models.

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