A Search for Planets around the Brown Dwarf Gliese 229B

Details A Search for Planets around the Brown Dwarf Gliese 229B A Search for Planets around the Brown Dwarf Gliese 229B

Jul 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002hst..prop.9303f&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #9303

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Hst Proposal Id #9303

Scientific paper

Over the past six years, both extrasolar giant planets {EGPs} and brown dwarfs {BDs} have been discovered as companions to main-sequence stars. The discovery of planets around BDs themselves would provide insight into the formation of multiple or satellite systems in the substellar realm. BDs are ideal targets for planet hunting. Their very low masses {10-80 M_J} suggest that their space motion should be greatly perturbed by orbiting bodies of a few M_J. The reflex motion of nearby BDs can easily be observed astrometrically against a grid of background stars. For example, a 5 M_J planet orbiting 1 AU from a 50 M_J BD lying 5.7 pc from Earth would perturb the BD about 0.025'' on the sky. We plan to use the HRC to monitor the first unambiguous BD, Gl 229B, for a perturbation caused by orbiting EGPs. Because Gl 229B is separated by only 7.5'' from the 8th mag star Gl 229A, we will observe the BD using the aberrated beam coronagraph. Sixteen visits of one orbit will be committed to this program over the three-year GTO period. Such sampling will be sufficient to detect EGPs of mass > 2 M_J with orbital radii less than 2 AU. Short- and long-exposure direct images of Gl 229A and B will be obtained through FR914M to obtain accurate relative astrometry of the pair. Long coronagraphic exposures will be obtained through F814W and F850LP to achieve good S/N for both Gl 229B and the background reference stars. These exposures will also provide measurements of Gl 229B's orbital position and velocity, which will contribute to the eventual determination of the BD's mass. We will also monitor Gl 229B for photometric variability that may be caused by eclipses from earth-sized or larger planets.

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