English

Speckle Imaging Excludes Low-Mass Companions Orbiting the Exoplanet Host Star TRAPPIST-1

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2016-10-26 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

We have obtained the highest resolution images available of TRAPPIST-1 using the Gemini-South telescope and our speckle imaging camera. Observing at 692 and 883 nm, we reached the diffraction limit of the telescope providing a best resolution of 27 mas or, at the distance of TRAPPIST-1, a spatial resolution of 0.32 AU. Our imaging of the star extends from 0.32 to 14.5 AU. We show that to a high confidence level, we can exclude all possible stellar and brown dwarf companions, indicating that TRAPPIST-1 is a single star.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1610.05269,
  title  = {Speckle Imaging Excludes Low-Mass Companions Orbiting the Exoplanet Host Star TRAPPIST-1},
  author = {Steve B. Howell and Mark E. Everett and Elliott P. Horch and Jennifer G. Winters and Lea Hirsch and Dan Nusdeo and Nicholas J. Scott},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.05269},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Accepted in ApJ Letters, 13 Sept. 2016 issue