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Register a new userVery Large Telescope observations of Gomezs Hamburger: Insights into a young protoplanet candidate
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Planets are thought to form in the gas and dust disks around young stars. In particular, it has been proposed that giant planets can form through the gravitational instability of massive extended disks around intermediate-mass stars. However, we still lack direct observations to constrain this mechanism. We have spatially resolved the 8.6 and 11.2 $mu$m emission of a massive protoplanetary disk seen edge on around an A star, Gomezs Hamburger (GoHam), using VISIR at the Very Large Telescope. A compact region situated at a projected distance of $350pm50$ AU south of the central star is found to have a reduced emission.This asymmetry is fully consistent with the presence of a cold density structure, or clump, identified in earlier CO observations, and we derive physical characteristics consistent with those observations: a mass of 0.8-11.4 Jupiter masses (for a dust-to-gas mass ratio of 0.01), a radius of about 10$^2$ astronomical units, and a local density of about $10^{7}$ cm$^{-3}$. Based on this evidence, we argue that this clump, which we call GoHam b, is a promising candidate for a young protoplanet formed by gravitational instability that might be representative of the precursors of massive planets observed around A stars, such as HR 8799 or Beta pictoris. More detailed studies at high angular resolution are needed to better constrain the physical properties of this object to confirm this proposal.
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We present high-contrast observations of the circumstellar environment of the Herbig Ae/Be star HD100546. The final 3.8 micron image reveals an emission source at a projected separation of 0.48+-0.04 (corresponding to ~47+-4 AU at a position angle of 8.9+-0.9 degree. The emission appears slightly extended with a point source component with an apparent magnitude of 13.2+-0.4 mag. The position of the source coincides with a local deficit in polarization fraction in near-infrared polarimetric imaging data, which probes the surface of the well-studied circumstellar disk of HD100546. This suggests a possible physical link between the emission source and the disk. Assuming a disk inclination of ~47 degree the de-projected separation of the object is ~68 AU. Assessing the likelihood of various scenarios we favor an interpretation of the available high-contrast data with a planet in the process of forming. Follow-up observations in the coming years can easily distinguish between the different possible scenarios empirically. If confirmed, HD100546 b would be a unique laboratory to study the formation process of a new planetary system, with one giant planet currently forming in the disk and a second planet possibly orbiting in the disk gap at smaller separations.
Unraveling the 3D physical structure, the temperature and density distribution, of protoplanetary discs is an essential step if we are to confront simulations of embedded planets or dynamical instabilities. In this paper we focus on Submillimeter Array observations of the edge-on source, Gomezs Hamburger, believed to host an over-density hypothesised to be a product of gravitational instability in the disc, GoHam b. We demonstrate that, by leveraging the well characterised rotation of a Keplerian disc to deproject observations of molecular lines in position-position-velocity space into disc-centric coordinates, we are able to map out the emission distribution in the (r, z) plane and (x, y, z) space. We show that 12CO traces an elevated layer of $z,/,r sim 0.3$, while 13CO traces deeper in the disc at $z,/,r lesssim 0.2$. We localize emission associated with GoHam b, finding it at deprojected radius of approximately 500 au and at polar angle of +- 30 degrees from the disc major axis. At the spatial resolution of $sim 1.5^{primeprime}$, GoHam b is spatially unresolved, with an upper limit to its radius of $<190$~au.
We study the nature of Gomezs Hamburger (IRAS 18059-3211), a nebula that has been proposed to be a post-AGB object. Such a classification is not confirmed; instead, we argue that it will be a key object in the study of disks rotating around young stars. We present high resolution SMA maps of CO J=2--1 in Gomezs Hamburger. The data are analyzed by means of a code that simulates the emission of a nebula showing a variety of physical conditions and kinematics. Our observations clearly show that the CO emitting gas in Gomezs Hamburger forms a spectacular disk in keplerian rotation. Model calculations undoubtly confirm this result. The central (mainly stellar) mass is found to be high, ~ 4 Mo for a distance of 500 pc. The mass and (relatively low) luminosity of the source are, independent of the assumed distance, very different from those possible in evolved stars. Gomezs Hamburger is probably a transitional object between the pre-MS and MS phases, still showing interstellar material around the central star or stellar system.
Observations of circumstellar environments to look for the direct signal of exoplanets and the scattered light from disks has significant instrumental implications. In the past 15 years, major developments in adaptive optics, coronagraphy, optical manufacturing, wavefront sensing and data processing, together with a consistent global system analysis have enabled a new generation of high-contrast imagers and spectrographs on large ground-based telescopes with much better performance. One of the most productive is the Spectro-Polarimetic High contrast imager for Exoplanets REsearch (SPHERE) designed and built for the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. SPHERE includes an extreme adaptive optics system, a highly stable common path interface, several types of coronagraphs and three science instruments. Two of them, the Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) and the Infra-Red Dual-band Imager and Spectrograph (IRDIS), are designed to efficiently cover the near-infrared (NIR) range in a single observation for efficient young planet search. The third one, ZIMPOL, is designed for visible (VIR) polarimetric observation to look for the reflected light of exoplanets and the light scattered by debris disks. This suite of three science instruments enables to study circumstellar environments at unprecedented angular resolution both in the visible and the near-infrared. In this work, we present the complete instrument and its on-sky performance after 4 years of operations at the VLT.
An outstanding, multi-disciplinary goal of modern science is the study of the diversity of potentially Earth-like planets and the search for life in them. This goal requires a bold new generation of space telescopes, but even the most ambitious designs yet hope to characterize several dozen potentially habitable planets. Such a sample may be too small to truly understand the complexity of exo-earths. We describe here a notional concept for a novel space observatory designed to characterize 1,000 transiting exo-earth candidates. The Nautilus concept is based on an array of inflatable spacecraft carrying very large diameter (8.5m), very low-weight, multi-order diffractive optical elements (MODE lenses) as light-collecting elements. The mirrors typical to current space telescopes are replaced by MODE lenses with a 10 times lighter areal density that are 100 times less sensitive to misalignments, enabling light-weight structure. MODE lenses can be cost-effectively replicated through molding. The Nautilus mission concept has a potential to greatly reduce fabrication and launch costs, and mission risks compared to the current space telescope paradigm through replicated components and identical, light-weight unit telescopes. Nautilus is designed to survey transiting exo-earths for biosignatures up to a distance of 300 pc, enabling a rigorous statistical exploration of the frequency and properties of life-bearing planets and the diversity of exo-earths.
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