RESOLVING THE HD 100546 PROTOPLANETARY SYSTEM WITH THE GEMINI PLANET IMAGER: EVIDENCE FOR MULTIPLE FORMING, ACCRETING PLANETS
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Subaru Telescope (Japan)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, SC (United States)
- Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
- Department of Astrophysics Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Division of Liberal Arts, Kogakuin University, Tokyo (Japan)
- Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA (United States)
We report Gemini Planet Imager H-band high-contrast imaging/integral field spectroscopy and polarimetry of the HD 100546, a 10 Myr old early-type star recently confirmed to host a thermal infrared (IR) bright (super-)Jovian protoplanet at wide separation, HD 100546 b. We resolve the inner disk cavity in polarized light, recover the thermal IR-bright arm, and identify one additional spiral arm. We easily recover HD 100546 b and show that much of its emission plausibly originates from an unresolved point source. The point-source component of HD 100546 b has extremely red IR colors compared to field brown dwarfs, qualitatively similar to young cloudy super-Jovian planets; however, these colors may instead indicate that HD 100546 b is still accreting material from a circumplanetary disk. Additionally, we identify a second point-source-like peak at r{sub proj} ∼ 14 AU, located just interior to or at the inner disk wall consistent with being a <10–20 M{sub J} candidate second protoplanet—“HD 100546 c”—and lying within a weakly polarized region of the disk but along an extension of the thermal IR-bright spiral arm. Alternatively, it is equally plausible that this feature is a weakly polarized but locally bright region of the inner disk wall. Astrometric monitoring of this feature over the next 2 years and emission line measurements could confirm its status as a protoplanet, rotating disk hot spot that is possibly a signpost of a protoplanet, or a stationary emission source from within the disk.
- OSTI ID:
- 22518670
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 814, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Confirmation and characterization of the protoplanet HD 100546 b—Direct evidence for gas giant planet formation at 50 AU
NIR spectroscopy of the HAeBe star HD 100546. III. Further evidence of an orbiting companion?