A Search for Exozodiacal Dust and Faint Companions near Sirius, Procyon, and Altair with the NICMOS Coronagraph1

Kuchner, Marc J.; Brown, Michael E.

doi:10.1086/316581

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…UBVRI fluxes were converted to the magnitude system of Cohen et al (2003a). The flux measured at 1.104 μm from HST-NICMOS observations (Kuchner & Brown 2000) is also shown. The JHKs infrared fluxes are already in remarkable agreement with this simple black body extrapolation.…”

Section: Infrared Photometry Of Sirius-bmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Schoeder et al (2000) imaged Sirius-A at 1.02 μm, with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Planetary Camera and provided first constraints within 17 of the star. Kuchner & Brown (2000) using the HST-NICMOS camera in coronographic mode covered the central 3.5 at a similar 1.10 μm wavelength in a search of exozodiacal dust around Sirius-A. The HST-STIS spectrograph was also used to measure accurate UBVRI magnitudes of Sirius-B from its visual spectrum (Barstow et al 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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ADONIS high contrast infrared imaging of Sirius-B

Bonnet‐Bidaud

Pantin

2008

A&A

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Context. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky and a strong source of diffuse light for modern telescopes so that the immediate surroundings of the star are still poorly known. Aims. We study the close surroundings of the star (2 to 25 ) by means of adaptive optics and coronographic device in the near-infrared, using the ESO/ADONIS system. Methods. The resulting high contrast images in the JHKs bands have a resolution of ∼0.2 and limiting apparent magnitude ranging from m K = 9.5 at 3 from Sirius-A to m K = 13.1 at 10 . These are the first and deepest images of the Sirius system in this infrared range.Results. From these observations, accurate infrared photometry of the Sirius-B white dwarf companion is obtained. The JH magnitudes of Sirius-B are found to agree with expectations for a DA white dwarf of temperature (T = 25 000 K) and gravity (log g = 8.5), consistent with the characteristics determined from optical observations. However, a small, significant excess is measurable for the K band, similar to that detected for "dusty" isolated white dwarfs harbouring suspected planetary debris. The possible existence of such circumstellar material around Sirius-B has still to be confirmed by further observations. Conclusions. These deep images allow us to search for small but yet undetected companions to Sirius. Apart from Sirius-B, no other source is detected within the total 25 field. A comparison of the flux expected from the faintest known brown dwarfs at the distance of Sirius demonstrates that the above limiting magnitudes correspond to a star of spectral type later than T5 at 5 and T7 at 10 . Using theoretical spectra of brown dwarfs and planet-size objects, we also show that the end of the brown dwarf sequence is reached in the outer part of the image. The minimum detectable mass is around 10 M Jup inside the planetary limit, indicating that an extrasolar planet at a projected distance of ∼25 AU from Sirius would have been detected.

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Section: Infrared Photometry Of Sirius-bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ADONIS high contrast infrared imaging of Sirius-B

Bonnet‐Bidaud

Pantin

2008

A&A

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“…Photometric surveys with infrared space telescopes such as IRAS, ISO and Spitzer have detected cold dust around nearby stars at a level of ∼100 times our Kuiper Belt, but did not allow the characterization of warm dust emission at a better level than about 500 times the Solar zodiacal cloud (Beichman et al 2005). Attempts to spatially resolve faint exozodiacal clouds with single dish telescopes in the mid-infrared (Kuchner et al 1998) and near infrared (Kuchner & Brown 2000) have not yielded better detection limits. Even the MIRI instrument onboard the future James Webb Space Telescope, equipped with coronagraphic devices at 10.6 µm and other longer wavelengths, does not have a good enough angular resolution (∼330 mas) to detect warm dust within the habitable zone of Darwin/TPF candidate targets.…”

Section: Oa Acknowledges the Financial Support Of The Belgian Natiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance study of ground-based infrared Bracewell interferometers

Absil¹,

Hartog

Gondoin

et al. 2006

A&A

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Nulling interferometry, a powerful technique for high-resolution imaging of the close neighbourhood of bright astrophysical objets, is currently considered for future space missions such as Darwin or the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer (TPF-I), both aiming at Earth-like planet detection and characterization. Ground-based nulling interferometers are being studied for both technology demonstration and scientific preparation of the Darwin/TPF-I missions through a systematic survey of circumstellar dust disks around nearby stars. In this paper, we investigate the influence of atmospheric turbulence on the performance of ground-based nulling instruments, and deduce the major design guidelines for such instruments. End-to-end numerical simulations allow us to estimate the performance of the main subsystems and thereby the actual sensitivity of the nuller to faint exozodiacal disks. Particular attention is also given to the important question of stellar leakage calibration. This study is illustrated in the context of GENIE, the Ground-based European Nulling Interferometer Experiment, to be installed at the VLTI and working in the L band. We estimate that this instrument will detect exozodiacal clouds as faint as about 50 times the Solar zodiacal cloud, thereby placing strong constraints on the acceptable targets for Darwin/TPF-I.

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“…However, Sirius' extreme brightness-both apparent and absolute-had long thwarted attempts to verify these claims through direct imaging. Kuchner & Brown (2000) established first constraints on substellar companions at separations of 1. 5-3 with space-based coronography at 1.02 μm on Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS, whereas Bonnet-Bidaud & Pantin (2008) used ground-based observations assisted by adaptive optics on ESO ADONIS to achieve similar constraints in the range of 3 -10 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Piercing the Glare: A Direct Imaging Search for Planets in the Sirius System

Thalmann¹,

Usuda²,

Kenworthy³

et al. 2011

ApJ

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Astrometric monitoring of the Sirius binary system over the past century has yielded several predictions for an unseen third system component, the most recent one suggesting a 50 M Jup object in a ∼6.3 year orbit around Sirius A. Here we present two epochs of high-contrast imaging observations performed with Subaru IRCS and AO188 in the 4.05 μm narrowband Br α filter. These data surpass previous observations by an order of magnitude in detectable companion mass, allowing us to probe the relevant separation range down to the planetary-mass regime (6-12 M Jup at 1 , 2-4 M Jup at 2 , and 1.6 M Jup beyond 4). We complement these data with one epoch of M-band observations from MMT/AO Clio, which reach comparable performance. No data set reveals any companion candidates above the 5σ level, allowing us to refute the existence of Sirius C as suggested by the previous astrometric analysis. Furthermore, our Br α photometry of Sirius B confirms the lack of an infrared excess beyond the white dwarf's blackbody spectrum.

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A Search for Exozodiacal Dust and Faint Companions near Sirius, Procyon, and Altair with the NICMOS Coronagraph1

Cited by 13 publications

References 20 publications

ADONIS high contrast infrared imaging of Sirius-B

ADONIS high contrast infrared imaging of Sirius-B

Performance study of ground-based infrared Bracewell interferometers

Piercing the Glare: A Direct Imaging Search for Planets in the Sirius System

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