Searching for Planets Orbiting Vega with the James Webb Space Telescope
The most prominent of the IRAS debris disk systems, α Lyrae (Vega), at a distance of 7.7 pc, has been observed by both the NIRCam and MIRI instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope. This paper describes NIRCam coronagraphic observations, which have achieved F444W contrast levels of 3 × 10 ^−7 at...
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IOP Publishing
2024-01-01
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| Series: | The Astronomical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad890d |
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| author | Charles Beichman Geoffrey Bryden Jorge Llop-Sayson Marie Ygouf Alexandra Greenbaum Jarron Leisenring Andras Gaspar John Krist George Rieke Schuyler Wolff Kate Su Klaus Hodapp Michael Meyer Doug Kelly Martha Boyer Doug Johnstone Scott Horner Marcia Rieke |
| author_facet | Charles Beichman Geoffrey Bryden Jorge Llop-Sayson Marie Ygouf Alexandra Greenbaum Jarron Leisenring Andras Gaspar John Krist George Rieke Schuyler Wolff Kate Su Klaus Hodapp Michael Meyer Doug Kelly Martha Boyer Doug Johnstone Scott Horner Marcia Rieke |
| author_sort | Charles Beichman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The most prominent of the IRAS debris disk systems, α Lyrae (Vega), at a distance of 7.7 pc, has been observed by both the NIRCam and MIRI instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope. This paper describes NIRCam coronagraphic observations, which have achieved F444W contrast levels of 3 × 10 ^−7 at 1″ (7.7 au), 1 × 10 ^−7 at 2″ (15 au), and a few × 10 ^−8 beyond 5″ (38 au), corresponding to masses of <3, 2, and 0.5 M _J for a system age of 700 Myr. Two F444W objects are identified in the outer MIRI debris disk, around 48 au. One of these is detected by MIRI and appears to be extended with a spectral energy distribution similar to those of distant extragalactic sources. The second one also appears extended in the NIRCam data suggestive of an extragalactic nature. The NIRCam limits within the inner disk (1″–10″) correspond to model-dependent masses of 2–3 M _J . K. Y. L. Su et al. argue that planets larger than 0.3 M _J would disrupt the smooth disk structure seen at MIRI wavelengths. Eight additional objects are found within 60″ of Vega, but none have astrometric properties or colors consistent with planet candidates. These observations reach a level consistent with expected Jeans mass limits. Deeper observations achieving contrast levels < 10 ^−8 outside of ∼4″ and reaching masses below that of Saturn are possible, but may not reveal a large population of new objects. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e3f6e185ff284b8ead67a7e2775b99cb |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1538-3881 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astronomical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-e3f6e185ff284b8ead67a7e2775b99cb2025-08-20T01:59:34ZengIOP PublishingThe Astronomical Journal1538-38812024-01-0116911710.3847/1538-3881/ad890dSearching for Planets Orbiting Vega with the James Webb Space TelescopeCharles Beichman0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5627-5471Geoffrey Bryden1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5966-837XJorge Llop-Sayson2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3414-784XMarie Ygouf3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7591-2731Alexandra Greenbaum4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7162-8036Jarron Leisenring5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0834-6140Andras Gaspar6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8612-3236John Krist7George Rieke8https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2303-6519Schuyler Wolff9https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9977-8255Kate Su10https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3532-5580Klaus Hodapp11https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0786-2140Michael Meyer12https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1227-3084Doug Kelly13Martha Boyer14https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4850-9589Doug Johnstone15https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6773-459XScott Horner16https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9886-6934Marcia Rieke17https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7893-6170NASA Exoplanet Science Institute , IPAC, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA ; chas@ipac.caltech.edu; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91109, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91109, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91109, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91109, USAIPAC, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91125, USASteward Observatory, University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721, USASteward Observatory, University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91109, USASteward Observatory, University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721, USASteward Observatory, University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721, USASpace Science Institute , Boulder, CO 80301, USAUniversity of Hawaii , Hilo, HI 96720, USAUniversity Of Michigan , Madison, MI, USASteward Observatory, University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721, USASpace Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USANRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics , 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria , Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, CanadaNASA Ames Research Center , Mountain View, CA 94035, USASteward Observatory, University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721, USAThe most prominent of the IRAS debris disk systems, α Lyrae (Vega), at a distance of 7.7 pc, has been observed by both the NIRCam and MIRI instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope. This paper describes NIRCam coronagraphic observations, which have achieved F444W contrast levels of 3 × 10 ^−7 at 1″ (7.7 au), 1 × 10 ^−7 at 2″ (15 au), and a few × 10 ^−8 beyond 5″ (38 au), corresponding to masses of <3, 2, and 0.5 M _J for a system age of 700 Myr. Two F444W objects are identified in the outer MIRI debris disk, around 48 au. One of these is detected by MIRI and appears to be extended with a spectral energy distribution similar to those of distant extragalactic sources. The second one also appears extended in the NIRCam data suggestive of an extragalactic nature. The NIRCam limits within the inner disk (1″–10″) correspond to model-dependent masses of 2–3 M _J . K. Y. L. Su et al. argue that planets larger than 0.3 M _J would disrupt the smooth disk structure seen at MIRI wavelengths. Eight additional objects are found within 60″ of Vega, but none have astrometric properties or colors consistent with planet candidates. These observations reach a level consistent with expected Jeans mass limits. Deeper observations achieving contrast levels < 10 ^−8 outside of ∼4″ and reaching masses below that of Saturn are possible, but may not reveal a large population of new objects.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad890dExoplanetsCoronagraphic imagingExtrasolar gaseous giant planetsDebris disks |
| spellingShingle | Charles Beichman Geoffrey Bryden Jorge Llop-Sayson Marie Ygouf Alexandra Greenbaum Jarron Leisenring Andras Gaspar John Krist George Rieke Schuyler Wolff Kate Su Klaus Hodapp Michael Meyer Doug Kelly Martha Boyer Doug Johnstone Scott Horner Marcia Rieke Searching for Planets Orbiting Vega with the James Webb Space Telescope The Astronomical Journal Exoplanets Coronagraphic imaging Extrasolar gaseous giant planets Debris disks |
| title | Searching for Planets Orbiting Vega with the James Webb Space Telescope |
| title_full | Searching for Planets Orbiting Vega with the James Webb Space Telescope |
| title_fullStr | Searching for Planets Orbiting Vega with the James Webb Space Telescope |
| title_full_unstemmed | Searching for Planets Orbiting Vega with the James Webb Space Telescope |
| title_short | Searching for Planets Orbiting Vega with the James Webb Space Telescope |
| title_sort | searching for planets orbiting vega with the james webb space telescope |
| topic | Exoplanets Coronagraphic imaging Extrasolar gaseous giant planets Debris disks |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad890d |
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