Direct imaging discovery of a young giant planet orbiting on Solar System scales
Abstract
HD 135344 AB is a young visual binary system that is best known for the protoplanetary disk around the secondary star. The circumstellar environment of the A0-type primary star, on the other hand, is already depleted. HD 135344 A is therefore an ideal target for the exploration of recently formed giant planets because it is not obscured by dust. We searched for and characterized substellar companions to HD 135344 A down to separations of about 10 au. We observed HD 135344 A with VLT/SPHERE in the and bands and obtained and spectroscopy. In addition, we carried out VLTI/GRAVITY observations for the further astrometric and spectroscopic confirmation of a detected companion. We discovered a close-in young giant planet, HD 135344 Ab, with a mass of about 10 . The multi-epoch astrometry confirms the bound nature based on common parallax and common proper motion. This firmly rules out the scenario of a non-stationary background star. The semi-major axis of the planetary orbit is approximately 15-20 au, and the photometry is consistent with that of a mid L-type object. The inferred atmospheric and bulk parameters further confirm the young and planetary nature of the companion. HD 135344 Ab is one of the youngest directly imaged planets that has fully formed and orbits on Solar System scales. It is a valuable target for studying the early evolution and atmosphere of a giant planet that could have formed in the vicinity of the snowline.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.06206,
title = {Direct imaging discovery of a young giant planet orbiting on Solar System scales},
author = {T. Stolker and M. Samland and L. B. F. M. Waters and M. E. van den Ancker and W. O. Balmer and S. Lacour and M. L. Sitko and J. J. Wang and M. Nowak and A. -L. Maire and J. Kammerer and G. P. P. L. Otten and R. Abuter and A. Amorim and M. Benisty and J. -P. Berger and H. Beust and S. Blunt and A. Boccaletti and M. Bonnefoy and H. Bonnet and M. S. Bordoni and G. Bourdarot and W. Brandner and F. Cantalloube and P. Caselli and B. Charnay and G. Chauvin and A. Chavez and A. Chomez and E. Choquet and V. Christiaens and Y. Clénet and V. Coudé du Foresto and A. Cridland and R. Davies and R. Dembet and J. Dexter and C. Dominik and A. Drescher and G. Duvert and A. Eckart and F. Eisenhauer and N. M. Förster Schreiber and P. Garcia and R. Garcia Lopez and T. Gardner and E. Gendron and R. Genzel and S. Gillessen and J. H. Girard and S. Grant and X. Haubois and G. Heißel and Th. Henning and S. Hinkley and S. Hippler and M. Houllé and Z. Hubert and L. Jocou and M. Keppler and P. Kervella and L. Kreidberg and N. T. Kurtovic and A. -M. Lagrange and V. Lapeyrère and J. -B. Le Bouquin and D. Lutz and F. Mang and G. -D. Marleau and A. Mérand and M. Min and P. Mollière and J. D. Monnier and C. Mordasini and D. Mouillet and E. Nasedkin and T. Ott and C. Paladini and T. Paumard and K. Perraut and G. Perrin and O. Pfuhl and N. Pourré and L. Pueyo and S. P. Quanz and D. C. Ribeiro and E. Rickman and Z. Rustamkulov and J. Shangguan and T. Shimizu and D. Sing and J. Stadler and O. Straub and C. Straubmeier and E. Sturm and L. J. Tacconi and E. F. van Dishoeck and A. Vigan and F. Vincent and S. D. von Fellenberg and F. Widmann and T. O. Winterhalder and J. Woillez and S. Yazici},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.06206},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&A