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Published September 2018 | Published + Accepted Version
Journal Article Open

WEIRD: Wide-orbit Exoplanet Search with InfraRed Direct Imaging

Abstract

We report results from the Wide-orbit Exoplanet search with InfraRed Direct imaging, or WEIRD, a survey designed to search for Jupiter-like companions on very wide orbits (1000–5000 au) around young stars (<120 Myr) that are known members of moving groups in the solar neighborhood (<70 pc). Companions that share the same age, distance, and metallicity as their host while being on large enough orbits to be studied as "isolated" objects make prime targets for spectroscopic observations, and they are valuable benchmark objects for exoplanet atmosphere models. The search strategy is based on deep imaging in multiple bands across the near-infrared domain. For all 177 objects of our sample, z_(ab)', J, [3.6], and [4.5] images were obtained with CFHT/MegaCam, GEMINI/GMOS, CFHT/WIRCam, GEMINI/Flamingos-2, and Spitzer/IRAC. Using this set of four images per target, we searched for sources with red z_(ab)' and [3.6]–[4.5] colors, typically reaching good completeness down to 2 M_(Jup) companions, while going down to 1 M_(Jup) for some targets, at separations of 1000–5000 au. The search yielded four candidate companions with the expected colors, but they were all rejected through follow-up proper motion observations. Our results constrain the occurrence of 1–13 M_(Jup) planetary-mass companions on orbits with a semimajor axis between 1000 and 5000 au at less than 0.03, with a 95% confidence level.

Additional Information

© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2018 May 30; revised 2018 July 19; accepted 2018 July 22; published 2018 August 30. Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory through programs number GS-2014B-Q-2, GS-2015A-Q-71, GS-2015B-Q-57, GS-2016A-Q-69, GS-2016B-Q-33, GS-2017A-Q-58, and GS-2017B-Q-34. The Gemini Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF) on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the NSF (United States), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil), and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina). The authors would like to thank the anonymous referee for constructive comments and suggestions that improved the overall quality of the paper. This work was financially supported by the Fond de Recherche Québécois—Nature et Technologie(FRQNT; Québec). Based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Science de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii. The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys (PS1) have been made possible through contributions of the Institute for Astronomy, the University of Hawaii, the Pan-STARRS Project Office, the Max-Planck Society and its participating institutes, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, The Johns Hopkins University, Durham University, the University of Edinburgh, Queen's University Belfast, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network Incorporated, the National Central University of Taiwan, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. NNX08AR22G issued through the Planetary Science Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1238877, the University of Maryland, and Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE) and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, particularly those participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. Facilities: Gemini-South (Flamingos-2 - , GMOS-S) - , CFHT (WIRCam - , MegaCam) - , Spitzer (Irac). - Software: SExtractor (Bertin & Arnouts 1996), Scamp (Bertin 2010a), Swarp (Bertin 2010b), CFHT'S Elixir pipeline.

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Published - Baron_2018_AJ_156_137.pdf

Accepted Version - 1807.08799

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Additional details

Created:
August 21, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023