A Keck Adaptive Optics Search for Young Extrasolar Planets
Astrophysics
2007-05-23 v1
Abstract
Adaptive optics, large primary mirrors, and careful selection of target stars are the keys to ground-based imaging of extrasolar planets. Our near-IR survey is capable of identifying exoplanets of 1-10 M within 100 AU of young (t60 Myr), nearby (d60 pc) stars. For very young and proximate targets such as GJ 803 (12 Myr, 10 pc) we are able to detect exoplanets with parameters approaching those of planets our solar system (1 M at 19 AU, 2 M at 9 AU; 5 M at 5 AU). We have thus far imaged over 100 stars with Keck AO. Here we report on our progress, discuss specific observing strategies, and present detailed sensitivity limits.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0210169,
title = {A Keck Adaptive Optics Search for Young Extrasolar Planets},
author = {Denise Kaisler and Ben Zuckerman and Eric Becklin and Bruce Macintosh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0210169},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in "Scientific Frontiers in Research on Extrasolar Planets", D. Deming ed