Directly detecting thermal emission from young extrasolar planets allows measurement of their atmospheric compositions and luminosities, which are influenced by their formation mechanisms. Using the Gemini Planet Imager, we discovered a planet orbiting the ~20-million-year-old star 51 Eridani at a projected separation of 13 astronomical units. Near-infrared observations show a spectrum with strong methane and water-vapor absorption. Modeling of the spectra and photometry yields a luminosity (normalized by the luminosity of the Sun) of 1.6 to 4.0 × 10(-6) and an effective temperature of 600 to 750 kelvin. For this age and luminosity, "hot-start" formation models indicate a mass twice that of Jupiter. This planet also has a sufficiently low luminosity to be consistent with the "cold-start" core-accretion process that may have formed Jupiter.

We present the discovery of a Neptune-mass planet OGLE-2007-BLG-368Lb with a planet-star mass ratio of q = [9.5 ± 2.1] × 10 −5 via gravitational microlensing. The planetary deviation was detected in real-time thanks to the high cadence of the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics survey, real-time light-curve monitoring and intensive follow-up observations. A Bayesian analysis returns the stellar mass and distance at M l = 0.64 +0.21 −0.26 M and D l = 5.9 +0.9 −1.4 kpc, respectively, so the mass and separation of the planet are M p = 20 +7 −8 M ⊕ and a = 3.3 +1.4 −0.8 AU, respectively. This discovery adds another cold Neptune-mass planet to the planetary sample discovered by microlensing, which now comprises four cold Neptune/super-Earths, five gas giant planets, and another sub-Saturn mass planet whose nature is unclear. The discovery of these 10 cold exoplanets by the microlensing method implies that the mass ratio function of cold exoplanets scales as dN pl /d log q ∝ q −0.7±0.2 with a 95% confidence level upper limit of n < −0.35 (where dN pl /d log q ∝ q n). As microlensing is most sensitive to planets beyond the snow-line, this implies that Neptune-mass planets are at least three times more common than Jupiters in this region at the 95% confidence level.

Context. At young ages, low surface gravity affects the atmospheric properties of ultracool dwarfs. The impact on medium-resolution near-infrared (NIR) spectra has only been slightly investigated at the M-L transition so far. Aims. We present a library of NIR (1.1-2.45 µm) medium-resolution (R ∼ 1500-2000) integral field spectra of 15 young M6−L0 dwarfs. We aim at deriving updated NIR spectral type, luminosity, and physical parameters (T eff , log g, M, L/L ) for each source. This work also aims at testing the latest generation of BT-SETTL atmospheric models. Methods. We estimated spectral types using spectral indices and the spectra of young objects classified in the optical. We used the 2010 and 2012 releases of the BT-SETTL synthetic spectral grid and cross-checked the results with the DRIFT-PHOENIX models to derive the atmospheric properties of the sources. Results. We do not find significant differences between the spectra of young companions and those of young isolated brown dwarfs in the same spectral type range. We derive infrared spectral types L0 ± 1, L0 ± 1, M9.5 ± 0.5, M9.5 ± 0.5, M9.25 ± 0.25, M8 +0.5 −0.75 , and M8.5 ± 0.5 for AB Pic b, Cha J110913-773444, USco CTIO 108B, GSC 08047-00232 B, DH Tau B, CT Cha b, and HR7329B, respectively. The BT-SETTL and DRIFT-PHOENIX models yield close T eff and log g estimates for each source. The models seem to show a 600 +600 −300 K drop in the effective temperature at the M-L transition. Assuming the former temperatures are correct, we then derive new mass estimates that confirm that DH Tau B, USco CTIO 108B, AB Pic b, KPNO Tau 4, OTS 44, and Cha1109 lie inside or at the boundary of the planetary mass range. We combine the empirical luminosities of the M9.5-L0 sources to the T eff to derive semi-empirical radii estimates that do not match "hot-start" evolutionary models predictions at 1-3 Myr. We use complementary data to demonstrate that atmospheric models are able to reproduce the combined optical and infrared spectral energy distribution, together with the NIR spectra of these sources simultaneously. But the models still fail to represent the dominant features in the optical. This issue raises doubts on the ability of these models to predict effective temperatures from NIR spectra alone. Conclusions. The library provides templates for characterizing other young and late type objects. The study advocates the use of photometric and spectroscopic information over a broad range of wavelengths to study the properties of very low-mass young companions to be detected with the planet imagers (Subaru/SCExAO, LBT/LMIRCam, Gemini/GPI, VLT/SPHERE).

Aims. In this work we present chromospheric activity indices, kinematics, radial-velocities, and rotational velocities for more than 850 FGK-type dwarfs and subgiant stars in the southern hemisphere and test how best to calibrate and measure S -indices from echelle spectra. Methods. We measured our parameters using the high-resolution and high-S /N FEROS echelle spectra acquired for this purpose. Results. We confirm the bimodal distribution of chromospheric activities for such stars and highlight the role that the more active K-dwarfs play in biasing the number of active stars. We show that the age-activity relationship does appear to continue to ages older than the Sun if we simply compare main sequence stars and subgiant stars with an offset of around 2.5 Gyr between the peaks of both distributions. Also we show evidence of an increased spin-down timescale for cool K dwarfs compared with earlier F and G type stars. We highlight that activities drawn from low-resolution spectra (R < 2500) significantly increase the rms scatter when calibrating onto common systems of measurements like the Mt. Wilson system. Also we show that older and widely used catalogues of activities in the south appear to be offset compared to more recent works at the ∼0.1 dex level in log R HK through calibrator drift. In addition, we show how kinematics can be used to preselect inactive stars for future planet search projects. We see the well known trend between projected rotational velocity and activity, however we also find a correlation between kinematic space velocity and chromospheric activity. It appears that after the Vaughan-Preston gap there is a quick step function in the kinematic space motion towards a significantly broader spread in velocities. We speculate on reasons for this correlation and provide some model scenarios to describe the bimodal activity distribution through magnetic saturation, residual low level gas accretion, or accretion by the star of planets or planetesimals. Finally, we provide a new empirical measurement for the disk-heating law, using the latest age-activity relationships to reconstruct the age-velocity distribution for local disk stars. We find a value of 0.337 ± 0.045 for the exponent of this power law (i.e. σ tot ∝ t 0.337 ), in excellent agreement with those found using isochrone fitting methods and with theoretical disk-heating models.

Context. More than 50 exoplanets have been found around giant stars, revealing different properties when compared to planets orbiting solar-type stars. In particular, they are super-Jupiters and are not found orbiting interior to ∼0.5 AU. Aims. We are conducting a radial velocity study of a sample of 166 giant stars aimed at studying the population of close-in planets orbiting giant stars and how their orbital and physical properties are influenced by the post-MS evolution of the host star. Methods. We have collected multiepoch spectra for all of the targets in our sample. We have computed precision radial velocities from FECH/CHIRON and FEROS spectra, using the I 2 cell technique and the simultaneous calibration method, respectively. Results. We present the discovery of a massive planet around the giant star HIP 105854. The best Keplerian fit to the data leads to an orbital distance of 0.81 ± 0.03 AU, an eccentricity of 0.02 ± 0.03 and a projected mass of 8.2 ± 0.2 M J . With the addition of this new planet discovery, we performed a detailed analysis of the orbital properties and mass distribution of the planets orbiting giant stars. We show that there is an overabundance of planets around giant stars with a ∼ 0.5−0.9 AU, which might be attributed to tidal decay. Additionally, these planets are significantly more massive than those around MS and subgiant stars, suggesting that they grow via accretion either from the stellar wind or by mass transfer from the host star. Finally, we show that planets around evolved stars have lower orbital eccentricities than those orbiting solar-type stars, which suggests that they are either formed in different conditions or that their orbits are efficiently circularized by interactions with the host star.