A Search for Superplanets Embedded in Beta Pic&Vega-like Circumstellar Disks

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Hst Proposal Id #7835 Cool Stars Low-Mass Stars

Scientific paper

The discovery of a circumstellar disk orbiting Beta Pictoris as well as the discovery of other similar IR-excess Vega-like systems have provided compelling evidence that our solar system, or at least many of the processes which are thought to have created it, may be far from unique. These ~ 100-800 Myr disk systems are thought to harbor cometary and/or asteroidal planetesimals which replenish the disk material through collision processes -- under ordinary physical conditions these disks otherwise would not survive. These disks very well may represent a precursor to or a contemporary stage of planetary formation. While some tantalizing indirect evidence for the existence of at least one planet in the Beta Pic disk has recently been presented, no planetary-class objects have yet been directly imaged in a circumstellar disk. Here we propose to use HST/NICMOS with a unique observing concept in an attempt to resolve embedded superplanets for a modest-sized sample of disk systems. Direct imaging of even one such superplanet would be an important discovery for HST and could provide the first direct evidence for an evolutionary link between these disk systems and planet formation.

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