Related papers: Coronagraphic Search for Extra-Solar Planets aroun…
Gaps in circumstellar disks can signal the existence of planetary perturbers, making such systems preferred targets for direct imaging observations of exoplanets. Being one of the brightest and closest stars to the Sun, the photometric…
A significant population of nearby stars have strong far-infrared excesses, now known to be due to circumstellar dust in regions analogous to the Kuiper Belt of our solar system, though orders of magnitude more dense. Recent sub-mm and mm…
Interest among astronomers in the detection of extra-solar planets is accelerating with the growing realization that it may soon be technically feasible. The ongoing renaissance in telescope construction and the anticipated launches of new…
Stars with debris disks are intriguing targets for direct imaging exoplanet searches, both due to previous detections of wide planets in debris disk systems, as well as commonly existing morphological features in the disks themselves that…
We present the results of a deep high-contrast imaging search for planets around Vega. Vega is an ideal target for high-contrast imaging because it is bright, nearby, and young with a face-on two-belt debris disk which may be shaped by…
Many high contrast coronagraph designs have recently been proposed. In this paper, their suitability for direct imaging of extrasolar terrestrial planets is reviewed. We also develop a linear-algebra based model of coronagraphy that can…
I derive analytic scalings for coronagraphic imaging searches for extrasolar planets. I compute the efficiency of detecting planets about any given star, and from this compute dimensionless distribution functions for the detected planets as…
We present observations of \epseri~with the JWST/NIRCam coronagraph aimed at imaging planets orbiting within this system. In particular, these observations targeted (1) the Jupiter-like planet, first detected orbiting at 3.5 AU with radial…
Coronagraphic imaging in combination with moderate to high spectral resolution may prove more effective in both detecting extrasolar planets and characterizing them than a standard coronagraphic imaging approach. We envisage an…
$\epsilon$~Eridani is a young planetary system hosting a complex multi-belt debris disk and a confirmed Jupiter-like planet orbiting at 3.48 AU from its host star. Its age and architecture are thus reminiscent of the early Solar System. The…
Due to its proximity, youth, and solar-like characteristics with a spectral type of K2V, Eps Eri is one of the most extensively studied systems in an extrasolar planet context. Based on radial velocity, astrometry, and studies of the…
From adaptive optics observations with the Palomar 5-meter telescope we place upper limits on the masses of any planetary companions located between ~30-230 AU away from Vega, where our data are sensitive to depths ranging from H=12.5 mag…
We have obtained deep Adaptive Optics (AO) images of Vega and epsilon Eri to search for planetary-mass companions. We observed at the MMT in the L' (3.8 micron) and M (4.8 micron) bands using Clio, a recently commissioned imager optimized…
The recent discovery of an earth-like planet around Proxima Centauri has drawn much attention to this star and its environment. We performed a series of observations of Proxima Centauri using SPHERE, the planet finder instrument installed…
The most prominent of the IRAS debris disk systems, $\alpha$ 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 (JWST). This paper describes NIRCam…
We report on a search for low mass companions within 10 AU of the star Fomalhaut, using narrow band observations at 4.05 microns obtained with the Apodizing Phase Plate (APP) coronagraph on the VLT/NaCo. Our observations place a model…
Directly imaging extrasolar planets using a monolithic optical telescope avoids many pitfalls of space interferometry and opens up the prospect of visible light studies of extrasolar planetary systems. Future astronomical missions may…
All extra-solar planet masses that have been derived spectroscopically are lower limits since the inclination of the orbit to our line-of-sight is unknown except for transiting systems. It is, however, possible to determine the inclination…
We consider the mass distribution of the nine unseen companions orbiting solar-type stars with minimum possible masses in the planetary mass range reported as of March 1998. We compare the mass distribution of these nine extrasolar planet…
The proposed global astrometry mission {\it GAIA}, recently recommended within the context of ESA's Horizon 2000 Plus long-term scientific program, appears capable of surveying the solar neighborhood within $\sim$ 200 pc for the astrometric…