Habitable zone dust levels are a key unknown that must be understood to ensure the success of future space missions to image Earth analogues around nearby stars. Current detection limits are several orders of magnitude above the level of the Solar Sy
stems Zodiacal cloud, so characterisation of the brightness distribution of exo-zodi down to much fainter levels is needed. To this end, the large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) will detect thermal emission from habitable zone exo-zodi a few times brighter than Solar System levels. Here we present a modelling framework for interpreting LBTI observations, which yields dust levels from detections and upper limits that are then converted into predictions and upper limits for the scattered light surface brightness. We apply this model to the HOSTS survey sample of nearby stars; assuming a null depth uncertainty of 10$^{-4}$ the LBTI will be sensitive to dust a few times above the Solar System level around Sun-like stars, and to even lower dust levels for more massive stars.
In February 2013, the LEECH (LBTI Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt) survey began its 100-night campaign from the Large Binocular Telescope atop Mount Graham in Arizona. LEECH nearly complements other high-contrast planet imaging efforts by observing sta
rs in L band (3.8 microns) as opposed to the shorter wavelength near-infrared bands (1-2.3 microns). This part of the spectrum offers deeper mass sensitivity for intermediate age (several hundred Myr-old) systems, since their Jovian-mass planets radiate predominantly in the mid-infrared. In this proceedings, we present the science goals for LEECH and a preliminary contrast curve from some early data.
We report the discovery of a planetary-mass companion, HD 106906 b, with the new Magellan Adaptive Optics (MagAO) + Clio2 system. The companion is detected with Clio2 in three bands: $J$, $K_S$, and $L^prime$, and lies at a projected separation of 7.
1 (650 AU). It is confirmed to be comoving with its $13pm2$ Myr-old F5 host using Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys astrometry over a time baseline of 8.3 yr. DUSTY and COND evolutionary models predict the companions luminosity corresponds to a mass of $11pm2 M_{Jup}$, making it one of the most widely separated planetary-mass companions known. We classify its Magellan/Folded-Port InfraRed Echellette $J/H/K$ spectrum as L$2.5pm1$; the triangular $H$-band morphology suggests an intermediate surface gravity. HD 106906 A, a pre-main-sequence Lower Centaurus Crux member, was initially targeted because it hosts a massive debris disk detected via infrared excess emission in unresolved Spitzer imaging and spectroscopy. The disk emission is best fit by a single component at 95 K, corresponding to an inner edge of 15-20 AU and an outer edge of up to 120 AU. If the companion is on an eccentric ($e>0.65$) orbit, it could be interacting with the outer edge of the disk. Close-in, planet-like formation followed by scattering to the current location would likely disrupt the disk and is disfavored. Furthermore, we find no additional companions, though we could detect similar-mass objects at projected separations $>35$ AU. In situ formation in a binary-star-like process is more probable, although the companion-to-primary mass ratio, at $<1%$, is unusually small.
We present a 3-5um LBT/MMT adaptive optics imaging study of three Upper Scorpius stars with brown dwarf (BD) companions with very low-masses/mass ratios (M_BD < 25M_Jup; M_BD / M_star ~ 1-2%), and wide separations (300-700 AU): GSC 06214, 1RXS 1609,
and HIP 78530. We combine these new thermal IR data with existing 1-4um and 24um photometry to constrain the properties of the BDs and identify evidence for circumprimary/secondary disks in these unusual systems. We confirm that GSC 06214B is surrounded by a disk, further showing this disk produces a broadband IR excess due to small dust near the dust sublimation radius. An unresolved 24um excess in the system may be explained by the contribution from this disk. 1RXS 1609B exhibits no 3-4um excess, nor does its primary; however, the system as a whole has a modest 24um excess, which may come from warm dust around the primary and/or BD. Neither object in the HIP 78530 system exhibits near- to mid-IR excesses. We additionally find that the 1-4um colors of HIP 78530B match a spectral type of M3+-2, inconsistent with the M8 spectral type assigned based on its near-IR spectrum, indicating it may be a low-mass star rather than a BD. We present new upper limits on additional low-mass companions in the system (<5M_Jup beyond 175AU). Finally, we examine the utility of circumsecondary disks as probes of the formation histories of wide BD companions, finding that the presence of a disk may disfavor BD formation near the primary with subsequent outward scattering.
We present L band (3.8 $mu m$) MMT/Clio high-contrast imaging data for the nearby star GJ 758, which was recently reported by Thalmann et al. (2009) to have one -- possibly two-- faint comoving companions (GJ 758B and ``C, respectively). GJ 758B is d
etected in two distinct datasets. Additionally, we report a textit{possible} detection of the object identified by Thalmann et al as ``GJ 758C in our more sensitive dataset, though it is likely a residual speckle. However, if it is the same object as that reported by Thalmann et al. it cannot be a companion in a bound orbit. GJ 758B has a H-L color redder than nearly all known L--T8 dwarfs. Based on comparisons with the COND evolutionary models, GJ 758B has T$_{e}$ $sim$ 560 K$^{^{+150 K}_{-90K}}$ and a mass ranging from $sim$ 10--20 M$_{J}$ if it is $sim$ 1 Gyr old to $sim$ 25--40 M$_{J}$ if it is 8.7 Gyr old. GJ 758B is likely in a highly eccentric orbit, e $sim$ 0.73$^{^{+0.12}_{-0.21}}$, with a semimajor axis of $sim$ 44 AU$^{^{+32 AU}_{-14 AU}}$. Though GJ 758B is sometimes discussed within the context of exoplanet direct imaging, its mass is likely greater than the deuterium-burning limit and its formation may resemble that of binary stars rather than that of jovian-mass planets.
