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Register a new userThe Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign
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Our team is carrying out a multi-year observing program to directly image and characterize young extrasolar planets using the Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI) on the Gemini-South 8.1-meter telescope. NICI is the first instrument on a large telescope designed from the outset for high-contrast imaging, comprising a high-performance curvature adaptive optics system with a simultaneous dual-channel coronagraphic imager. Combined with state-of-the-art observing methods and data processing, NICI typically achieves ~2 magnitudes better contrast compared to previous ground-based or space-based programs, at separations inside of ~2 arcsec. In preparation for the Campaign, we carried out efforts to identify previously unrecognized young stars, to rigorously construct our observing strategy, and to optimize the combination of angular and spectral differential imaging. The Planet-Finding Campaign is in its second year, with first-epoch imaging of 174 stars already obtained out of a total sample of 300 stars. We describe the Campaigns goals, design, implementation, performance, and preliminary results. The NICI Campaign represents the largest and most sensitive imaging survey to date for massive (~1 Mjup) planets around other stars. Upon completion, the Campaign will establish the best measurements to date on the properties of young gas-giant planets at ~5-10 AU separations. Finally, Campaign discoveries will be well-suited to long-term orbital monitoring and detailed spectrophotometric followup with next-generation planet-finding instruments.
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We report here the highest resolution near-IR imaging to date of the HD 141569A disc taken as part of the NICI Science Campaign. We recover 4 main features in the NICI images of the HD 141569 disc discovered in previous HST imaging: 1) an inner ring / spiral feature. Once deprojected, this feature does not appear circular. 2) an outer ring which is considerably brighter on the western side compared to the eastern side, but looks fairly circular in the deprojected image. 3) an additional arc-like feature between the inner and outer ring only evident on the east side. In the deprojected image, this feature appears to complete the circle of the west side inner ring and 4) an evacuated cavity from 175 AU inwards. Compared to the previous HST imaging with relatively large coronagraphic inner working angles (IWA), the NICI coronagraph allows imaging down to an IWA of 0.3. Thus, the inner edge of the inner ring/spiral feature is well resolved and we do not find any additional disc structures within 175 AU. We note some additional asymmetries in this system. Specifically, while the outer ring structure looks circular in this deprojection, the inner bright ring looks rather elliptical. This suggests that a single deprojection angle is not appropriate for this system and that there may be an offset in inclination between the two ring / spiral features. We find an offset of 4+-2 AU between the inner ring and the star center, potentially pointing to unseen inner companions.
We have completed a high-contrast direct imaging survey for giant planets around 57 debris disk stars as part of the Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. We achieved median H-band contrasts of 12.4 mag at 0.5 and 14.1 mag at 1 separation. Follow-up observations of the 66 candidates with projected separation < 500 AU show that all of them are background objects. To establish statistical constraints on the underlying giant planet population based on our imaging data, we have developed a new Bayesian formalism that incorporates (1) non-detections, (2) single-epoch candidates, (3) astrometric and (4) photometric information, and (5) the possibility of multiple planets per star to constrain the planet population. Our formalism allows us to include in our analysis the previously known Beta Pictoris and the HR 8799 planets. Our results show at 95% confidence that <13% of debris disk stars have a >5MJup planet beyond 80 AU, and <21% of debris disk stars have a >3MJup planet outside of 40 AU, based on hot-start evolutionary models. We model the population of directly-imaged planets as d^2N/dMda ~ m^alpha a^beta, where m is planet mass and a is orbital semi-major axis (with a maximum value of amax). We find that beta < -0.8 and/or alpha > 1.7. Likewise, we find that beta < -0.8 and/or amax < 200 AU. If we ignore the Beta Pic and HR 8799 planets (should they belong to a rare and distinct group), we find that < 20% of debris disk stars have a > 3MJup planet beyond 10 AU, and beta < -0.8 and/or alpha < -1.5. Our Bayesian constraints are not strong enough to reveal any dependence of the planet frequency on stellar host mass. Studies of transition disks have suggested that about 20% of stars are undergoing planet formation; our non-detections at large separations show that planets with orbital separation > 40 AU and planet masses > 3 MJup do not carve the central holes in these disks.
We present new astrometry for the young (12--21 Myr) exoplanet beta Pictoris b taken with the Gemini/NICI and Magellan/MagAO instruments between 2009 and 2012. The high dynamic range of our observations allows us to measure the relative position of beta Pic b with respect to its primary star with greater accuracy than previous observations. Based on a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis, we find the planet has an orbital semi-major axis of 9.1 (+5.3, -0.5) AU and orbital eccentricity <0.15 at 68% confidence (with 95% confidence intervals of 8.2--48 AU and 0.00--0.82 for semi-major axis and eccentricity, respectively, due to a long narrow degenerate tail between the two). We find that the planet has reached its maximum projected elongation, enabling higher precision determination of the orbital parameters than previously possible, and that the planets projected separation is currently decreasing. With unsaturated data of the entire beta Pic system (primary star, planet, and disk) obtained thanks to NICIs semi-transparent focal plane mask, we are able to tightly constrain the relative orientation of the circumstellar components. We find the orbital plane of the planet lies between the inner and outer disks: the position angle (PA) of nodes for the planets orbit (211.8 +/- 0.3 degrees) is 7.4 sigma greater than the PA of the spine of the outer disk and 3.2 sigma less than the warped inner disk PA, indicating the disk is not collisionally relaxed. Finally, for the first time we are able to dynamically constrain the mass of the primary star beta Pic to 1.76 (+0.18, -0.17) solar masses.
We report the discovery by the Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign of two low-mass companions to the young A0V star HD 1160 at projected separations of 81 +/- 5 AU (HD 1160 B) and 533 +/- 25 AU (HD 1160 C). VLT images of the system taken over a decade for the purpose of using HD 1160 A as a photometric calibrator confirm that both companions are physically associated. By comparing the system to members of young moving groups and open clusters with well-established ages, we estimate an age of 50 (+50,-40) Myr for HD 1160 ABC. While the UVW motion of the system does not match any known moving group, the small magnitude of the space velocity is consistent with youth. Near-IR spectroscopy shows HD 1160 C to be an M3.5 +/- 0.5 star with an estimated mass of 0.22 (+0.03,-0.04) M_Sun, while NIR photometry of HD 1160 B suggests a brown dwarf with a mass of 33 (+12,-9) M_Jup. The very small mass ratio (0.014) between the A and B components of the system is rare for A star binaries, and would represent a planetary-mass companion were HD 1160 A to be slightly less massive than the Sun.
We report the discovery of a tight substellar companion to the young solar analog PZ Tel, a member of the Beta Pictoris moving group observed with high contrast adaptive optics imaging as part of the Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. The companion was detected at a projected separation of 16.4 +/- 1.0 AU (0.33 +/- 0.01) in April 2009. Second-epoch observations in May 2010 demonstrate that the companion is physically associated and shows significant orbital motion. Monte Carlo modeling constrains the orbit of PZ Tel B to eccentricities > 0.6. The near-IR colors of PZ Tel B indicate a spectral type of M7+/-2 and thus this object will be a new benchmark companion for studies of ultracool, low-gravity photospheres. Adopting an age of 12 +8 -4 Myr for the system, we estimate a mass of 36 +/- 6 Mjup based on the Lyon/DUSTY evolutionary models. PZ Tel B is one of few young substellar companions directly imaged at orbital separations similar to those of giant planets in our own solar system. Additionally, the primary star PZ Tel A shows a 70 um emission excess, evidence for a significant quantity of circumstellar dust that has not been disrupted by the orbital motion of the companion.
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