NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2009A-0364
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2009A-0364 |
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PI: James Graham, UC Berkeley Astronomy, jrg@berkeley.edu
Address: 601 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA
CoI: Christian Marois, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics
CoI: Paul Kalas, UC Berkeley Astronomy
CoI: Eugene Chiang, UC Berkeley Astronomy
CoI: Michael Fitzgerald, LLNL
CoI: Mark Clampin, NASA/GSFC
Title: L-prime Imaging of an Exoplanet Candidate
Abstract:
The young A star Fomalhaut hosts a belt of dusty material with a morphology
that implies the presence of a shepherding planet (Kalas et al. 2005). We
request time to follow up the discovery of a common proper motion companion
to Fomalhaut, which appears to be the predicted exoplanet. The mass of
Fomalhaut b is less than three Jupiter masses: a more massive object would
disrupt the dust belt and would be hotter than the 400 K effective
temperature estimated from the HST/ACS F814W flux. Despite deep imaging with
Keck AO, Fomalhaut b is not detected in H. This suggests either an error in
the model exoplanet spectra or that reflected starlight contributes to the
detected signal in the HST bands. NIRI provides very sensitive imaging at Lp;
thus, we propose to observe Fomalhaut b at this wavelength. Preliminary
observations in DD time placed a 3-sigma upper limit (60 µJy) just above the
predicted flux (50 µJy). This measurement offers the best opportunity to
measure the thermal emission from Fomalhaut b, to check the fidelity of the
exoplanet model spectra, and to place limits on the fraction of
scattered/reflected light at shorter wavelengths.
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2009A-0364 |
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