DISCOVERY OF A PROBABLE 4-5 JUPITER-MASS EXOPLANET TO HD 95086 BY DIRECT IMAGING

Journal Article · Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/772/2/L15· OSTI ID:22140331

Rameau, J.; Chauvin, G.; Lagrange, A. -M.; Delorme, P. ^[1]; Boccaletti, A. ^[2]; Quanz, S. P. ^[3]; Bonnefoy, M.; Klahr, H.; Mordasini, C. ^[4]; Girard, J. H.; Dumas, C. ^[5]; Desidera, S.

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1. UJF-Grenoble 1/CNRS-INSU, Institut de Planetologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG) UMR 5274, Grenoble F-38041 (France)
2. LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, University Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6 and University Denis Diderot Paris 7, 5 place Jules Janssen, F-92195 Meudon (France)
3. Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zurich (Switzerland)
4. Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Koenigsthul 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
5. European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19 (Chile)

Direct imaging has only begun to inventory the population of gas giant planets on wide orbits around young stars in the solar neighborhood. Following this approach, we carried out a deep imaging survey in the near-infrared using VLT/NaCo to search for substellar companions. Here we report the discovery of a probable companion orbiting the young (10-17 Myr), dusty, early-type (A8) star HD 95086 at 56 AU in L' (3.8 {mu}m) images. This discovery is based on observations with more than a year time lapse. Our first epoch clearly revealed the source at {approx_equal} 10{sigma}, while our second epoch lacks good observing conditions, yielding a {approx_equal} 3{sigma} detection. Various tests were thus made to rule out possible artifacts. This recovery is consistent with the signal at the first epoch but requires cleaner confirmation. Nevertheless, our astrometric precision suggests that the companion is comoving with the star with a 3{sigma} confidence level. The planetary nature of the source is reinforced by a non-detection in the Ks-band (2.18 {mu}m) images according to its possible extremely red Ks-L' color. Conversely, background contamination is rejected with good confidence level. The luminosity yields a predicted mass of about 4-5 M{sub Jup} (at 10-17 Myr) using ''hot-start'' evolutionary models, making HD 95086 b the exoplanet with the lowest mass ever imaged around a star.

• OSTI ID: 22140331
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 772, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ACCURACY
COLOR
DETECTION
IMAGES
INVENTORIES
JUPITER PLANET
LUMINOSITY
MASS
ORBITS
SATELLITES
STARS