TY - JOUR
T1 - A survey of close, young stars with SDI at the VLT and MMT
AU - Biller, Beth A.
AU - Close, Laird M.
AU - Masciadri, Elena
AU - Lenzen, Rainer
AU - Brandner, Wolfgang
AU - McCarthy, Donald
AU - Henning, Thomas
AU - Nielsen, Eric
AU - Hartung, Markus
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - We discuss the preliminary results of a survey of young (<300 Myr), close (<50 pc) stars with the Simultaneous Differential Extrasolar Planet Imager (SDI) implemented at the VLT and the MMT. SDI uses a quad filter to take images simultaneously at 3 wavelengths surrounding the 1.62 μm methane bandhead found in the spectrum of cool brown dwarfs and gas giants. By performing a difference of images in these filters, speckle noise from the primary can be significantly attenuated, resulting in photon noise limited data. In our survey data, we achieved H band contrasts >25000 (5σ ΔF1(1.575μm)>10 mag, ΔH>11.5 mag for a T6 spectral type) at a separation of 0.5″ from the primary star. With this degree of attenuation, we should be able to image (5σ detection) a 2-4 Jupiter mass planet at 5 AU around a 30 Myr star at 10 pc. We are currently completing our survey of young, nearby stars, with complete datasets for 35 stars in the southern sky (VLT) and 7 stars in the northern sky (MMT). We believe that our SDI images are the highest contrast astronomical images ever made from ground or space for methane rich companions.
AB - We discuss the preliminary results of a survey of young (<300 Myr), close (<50 pc) stars with the Simultaneous Differential Extrasolar Planet Imager (SDI) implemented at the VLT and the MMT. SDI uses a quad filter to take images simultaneously at 3 wavelengths surrounding the 1.62 μm methane bandhead found in the spectrum of cool brown dwarfs and gas giants. By performing a difference of images in these filters, speckle noise from the primary can be significantly attenuated, resulting in photon noise limited data. In our survey data, we achieved H band contrasts >25000 (5σ ΔF1(1.575μm)>10 mag, ΔH>11.5 mag for a T6 spectral type) at a separation of 0.5″ from the primary star. With this degree of attenuation, we should be able to image (5σ detection) a 2-4 Jupiter mass planet at 5 AU around a 30 Myr star at 10 pc. We are currently completing our survey of young, nearby stars, with complete datasets for 35 stars in the southern sky (VLT) and 7 stars in the northern sky (MMT). We believe that our SDI images are the highest contrast astronomical images ever made from ground or space for methane rich companions.
KW - (Stars:) planetary systems
KW - Instrumentation: Adaptive optics
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U2 - 10.1017/S1743921306009070
DO - 10.1017/S1743921306009070
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:63549104100
SN - 1743-9213
VL - 1
SP - 53
EP - 60
JO - Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
JF - Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
IS - C200
ER -