From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Wed Mar 14 2007 - 10:06:40 PDT
strophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0703300
From: Markus Janson [view email]
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:09:41 GMT (1460kb)
NACO-SDI direct imaging search for the exoplanet Eps Eri b
Authors: Markus Janson, Wolfgang Brandner, Thomas Henning, Rainer Lenzen,
Barbara McArthur, G. Fritz Benedict, Sabine Reffert, Eric Nielsen, Laird
Close, Beth Biller, Stephan Kellner, Eike Guenther, Artie Hatzes, Elena
Masciadri, Kerstin Geissler, Markus Hartung
Comments: 40 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in AJ
The active K2V star $\epsilon$ Eri hosts the most nearby known extrasolar
planet. With an angular separation of about 1 on average, and an age of a
few to several hundred Myrs, $\epsilon$ Eri b is one of the prime candidates
for becoming the first definitive extrasolar planet imaged directly. We
present a multi-epoch deep differential imaging survey performed with
NACO-SDI at the VLT with the aim of finding the planet. The results are
combined with recent astrometry in an attempt to further constrain the
detection limits. No convincing candidate is found among the many coherent
structures that constitute the residual speckle noise, which is the dominant
noise at small angular scales. We present our detection limits, compare them
with the estimated brightness of $\epsilon$ Eri b, and analyze how the
limits can be improved further. It is found that integration time remains a
very important parameter for achieving good results, even in the
speckle-dominated regimes. The results yield new, improved upper 3$\sigma$
limits on the absolute H-band (1.6 $\mu$m) brightness of the 1.55 $M_{\rm
jup}$ companion of 19.1 to 19.5 mag, depending on the specific age of the
system.
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0703300
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