Context. Young circumstellar disks are the birthplaces of planets. Their study is of prime interest to understand the physical and chemical conditions under which planet formation takes place. Only very few detections of planet candidates within these disks exist, and most of them are currently suspected to be disk features. Aims. In this context, the transition disk around the young star PDS 70 is of particular interest, due to its large gap identified in previous observations, indicative of ongoing planet formation. We aim to search for the presence of an embedded young planet and search for disk structures that may be the result of disk-planet interactions and other evolutionary processes. Methods. We analyse new and archival near-infrared (NIR) images of the transition disk PDS 70 obtained with the VLT/SPHERE, VLT/NaCo and Gemini/NICI instruments in polarimetric differential imaging (PDI) and angular differential imaging (ADI) modes. Results. We detect a point source within the gap of the disk at about 195 mas (∼22 au) projected separation. The detection is confirmed at five different epochs, in three filter bands and using different instruments. The astrometry results in an object of bound nature, with high significance.The comparison of the measured magnitudes and colours to evolutionary tracks suggests that the detection is a companion of planetary mass. The luminosity of the detected object is consistent with that of an L-type dwarf, but its IR colours are redder, possibly indicating the presence of warm surrounding material. Further, we confirm the detection of a large gap of ∼54 au in size within the disk in our scattered light images, and detect a signal from an inner disk component. We find that its spatial extent is very likely smaller than ∼17 au in radius, and its position angle is consistent with that of the outer disk. The images of the outer disk show evidence of a complex azimuthal brightness distribution which is different at different wavelengths and may in part be explained by Rayleigh scattering from very small grains. Conclusions. The detection of a young protoplanet within the gap of the transition disk around PDS 70 opens the door to a so far observationally unexplored parameter space of planetary formation and evolution. Future observations of this system at different wavelengths and continuing astrometry will allow us to test theoretical predictions regarding planet-disk interactions, planetary atmospheres and evolutionary models.Based on observations performed with ESO Telescopes at the Paranal Observatory under programmes 095.C-0298, 095.C-0404, 096.C-0333, 097.C-0206, 097.C-1001, 099.C-0891. are imprinted by the initial conditions of the disks and which develop through a variety of dynamical interactions is crucial for understanding the planet population. It is therefore of high importance to study planets and their environments at the stage during which these objects are formed. Transition disks (TDs) are of key interest in this context, as many of them are believed to bear direct ...

Observations of circumstellar environments that look for the direct signal of exoplanets and the scattered light from disks have significant instrumental implications. In the past 15 years, major developments in adaptive optics, coronagraphy, optical manufacturing, wavefront sensing, and data processing, together with a consistent global system analysis have brought about a new generation of high-contrast imagers and spectrographs on large ground-based telescopes with much better performance. One of the most productive imagers is the Spectro-Polarimetic High contrast imager for Exoplanets REsearch (SPHERE), which was designed and built for the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. SPHERE includes an extreme adaptive optics system, a highly stable common path interface, several types of coronagraphs, and three science instruments. Two of them, the Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) and the Infra-Red Dual-band Imager and Spectrograph (IRDIS), were designed to efficiently cover the near-infrared (NIR) range in a single observation for an efficient search of young planets. The third instrument, ZIMPOL, was designed for visible (VIS) polarimetric observation to look for the reflected light of exoplanets and the light scattered by debris disks. These three scientific instruments enable the study of circumstellar environments at unprecedented angular resolution, both in the visible and the near-infrared. In this work, we thoroughly present SPHERE and its on-sky performance after four years of operations at the VLT.

We study the multi-wavelength properties of a set of 171 Lyα emitting candidates at redshift z = 2.25 found in the COSMOS field, with the aim of understanding the underlying stellar populations in the galaxies. We especially seek to understand what the dust contents, ages and stellar masses of the galaxies are, and how they relate to similar properties of Lyα emitters at other redshifts. The candidates here are shown to have different properties from those of Lyα emitters found at higher redshift, by fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using a Monte-Carlo Markov-Chain technique and including nebular emission in the spectra. The stellar masses, and possibly the dust contents, are higher, with stellar masses in the range log M * = 8.5−11.0 M and A V = 0.0−2.5 mag. Young population ages are well constrained, but the ages of older populations are typically unconstrained. In 15% of the galaxies only a single, young population of stars is observed. We show that the Lyα fluxes of the best fit galaxies are correlated with their dust properties, with higher dust extinction in Lyα faint galaxies. Testing for whether results derived from a light-weighted stack of objects correlate to those found when fitting individual objects we see that stellar masses are robust to stacking, but ages and especially dust extinctions are derived incorrectly from stacks. We conclude that the stellar properties of Lyα emitters at z = 2.25 are different from those at higher redshift and that they are diverse. Lyα selection appears to be tracing systematically different galaxies at different redshifts.

Aims. The SHINE program is a high-contrast near-infrared survey of 600 young, nearby stars aimed at searching for and characterizing new planetary systems using VLT/SPHERE's unprecedented high-contrast and high-angular-resolution imaging capabilities. It is also intended to place statistical constraints on the rate, mass and orbital distributions of the giant planet population at large orbits as a function of the stellar host mass and age to test planet-formation theories. Methods. We used the IRDIS dual-band imager and the IFS integral field spectrograph of SPHERE to acquire high-contrast coronagraphic differential near-infrared images and spectra of the young A2 star HIP 65426. It is a member of the ∼ 17 Myr old Lower Centaurus-Crux association. Results. At a separation of 830 mas (92 au projected) from the star, we detect a faint red companion. Multi-epoch observations confirm that it shares common proper motion with HIP 65426. Spectro-photometric measurements extracted with IFS and IRDIS between 0.95 and 2.2 µm indicate a warm, dusty atmosphere characteristic of young low-surface-gravity L5-L7 dwarfs. Hot-start evolutionary models predict a luminosity consistent with a 6 − 12 M Jup , T eff = 1300 − 1600 K and R = 1.5 ± 0.1 R Jup giant planet. Finally, the comparison with Exo-REM and PHOENIX BT-Settl synthetic atmosphere models gives consistent effective temperatures but with slightly higher surface gravity solutions of log(g) = 4.0−5.0 with smaller radii (1.0 − 1.3 R Jup ). Conclusions. Given its physical and spectral properties, HIP 65426 b occupies a rather unique placement in terms of age, mass, and spectral-type among the currently known imaged planets. It represents a particularly interesting case to study the presence of clouds as a function of particle size, composition, and location in the atmosphere, to search for signatures of non-equilibrium chemistry, and finally to test the theory of planet formation and evolution.

The SpHere INfrared Exoplanet (SHINE) project is a 500-star survey performed with SPHERE on the Very Large Telescope for the purpose of directly detecting new substellar companions and understanding their formation and early evolution. Here we present an initial statistical analysis for a subsample of 150 stars spanning spectral types from B to M that are representative of the full SHINE sample. Our goal is to constrain the frequency of substellar companions with masses between 1 and 75 M Jup and semimajor axes between 5 and 300 au. For this purpose, we adopt detection limits as a function of angular separation from the survey data for all stars converted into mass and projected orbital separation using the BEX-COND-hot evolutionary tracks and known distance to each system. Based on the results obtained for each star and on the 13 detections in the sample, we use a Markov chain Monte Carlo tool to compare our observations to two different types of models. The first is a parametric model based on observational constraints, and the second type are numerical models that combine advanced core accretion and gravitational instability planet population synthesis. Using the parametric model, we show that the frequencies of systems with at least one substellar companion are 23.0 +13.5 −9.7 %, 5.8 +4.7 −2.8 %, and 12.6 +12.9 −7.1 % for BA, FGK, and M stars, respectively. We also demonstrate that a planet-like formation pathway probably dominates the mass range from 1-75 M Jup for companions around BA stars, while for M dwarfs, brown dwarf binaries dominate detections. In contrast, a combination of binary star-like and planet-like formation is required to best fit the observations for FGK stars. Using our population model and restricting our sample to FGK stars, we derive a frequency of 5.7 +3.8 −2.8 %, consistent with predictions from the parametric model. More generally, the frequency values that we derive are in excellent agreement with values obtained in previous studies.