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- Currie, Thayne, et al.
(författare)
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RECOVERY OF THE CANDIDATE PROTOPLANET HD 100546 b WITH GEMINI/NICI AND DETECTION OF ADDITIONAL (PLANET-INDUCED ?) DISK STRUCTURE AT SMALL SEPARATIONS
- 2014
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Letters. - 2041-8205 .- 2041-8213. ; 796:2, s. L30-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report the first independent, second epoch (re-) detection of a directly imaged protoplanet candidate. Using L' high-contrast imaging of HD 100546 taken with the Near-Infrared Coronagraph and Imager on Gemini South, we recover HD 100546 b with a position and brightness consistent with the original Very Large Telescope/NAos-COnica detection from Quanz et al., although data obtained after 2013 will be required to decisively demonstrate common proper motion. HD 100546 b may be spatially resolved, up to approximate to 12-13 AU in diameter, and is embedded in a finger of thermal IR-bright, polarized emission extending inward to at least 0 ''.3. Standard hot-start models imply a mass of approximate to 15 M-J. However, if HD 100546 b is newly formed or made visible by a circumplanetary disk, both of which are plausible, its mass is significantly lower (e.g., 1-7 M-J). Additionally, we discover a thermal IR-bright disk feature, possibly a spiral density wave, at roughly the same angular separation as HD 100546 b but 90 degrees. away. Our interpretation of this feature as a spiral arm is not decisive, but modeling analyses using spiral density wave theory implies a wave launching point exterior to approximate to 0 ''.45 embedded within the visible disk structure: plausibly evidence for a second, hitherto unseen, wide-separation planet. With one confirmed protoplanet candidate and evidence for one to two others, HD 100546 is an important evolutionary precursor to intermediate-mass stars with multiple super-Jovian planets at moderate/wide separations like HR 8799.
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