The Astropy Project supports and fosters the development of open-source and openly developed Python packages that provide commonly needed functionality to the astronomical community. A key element of the Astropy Project is the core package astropy, which serves as the foundation for more specialized projects and packages. In this article, we summarize key features in the core package as of the recent major release, version 5.0, and provide major updates on the Project. We then discuss supporting a broader ecosystem of interoperable packages, including connections with several astronomical observatories and missions. We also revisit the future outlook of the Astropy Project and the current status of Learn Astropy. We conclude by raising and discussing the current and future challenges facing the Project.
Accreting protoplanets enable the direct characterization of planet formation. As part of a high-contrast imaging search for accreting planets with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3, we present Hα images of AB Aurigae (AB Aur), a Herbig Ae/Be star harboring a transition disk. The data were collected in two epochs of direct-imaging observations using the F656N narrowband filter. After subtracting the point-spread function of the primary star, we identify a pointlike source located at a position angle of 182.°5 ± 1.°4 and a separation of 600 ± 22 mas relative to the host star. The position is consistent with the recently identified protoplanet candidate AB Aur b. The source is visible in two individual epochs separated by ∼50 days, and the Hα intensities in the two epochs agree. The Hα flux density is F ν = 1.5 ± 0.4 mJy, 3.2 ± 0.9 times the optical continuum determined by published HST/STIS photometry. In comparison to PDS 70 b and c, the Hα excess emission is weak. The central star is accreting and the stellar Hα emission has a similar line-to-continuum ratio as seen in AB Aur b. We conclude that both planetary accretion and scattered stellar light are possible sources of the Hα emission, and the Hα detection alone does not validate AB Aur b as an accreting protoplanet. Disentangling the origin of the emission will be crucial for probing planet formation in the AB Aur disk.
VHS J1256−1257 AB is an ultracool dwarf binary that hosts a wide-separation planetary-mass companion that is a key target of the JWST Exoplanet Early Release Science (ERS) program. Using Keck adaptive optics imaging and aperture masking interferometry, we have determined the host binary’s orbit (a = 1.96 ± 0.03 au, P = 7.31 ± 0.02 yr, e = 0.883 ± 0.003) and measured its dynamical total mass (0.141 ± 0.008 M⊙). This total mass is consistent with VHS J1256−1257 AB being a brown dwarf binary or pair of very low-mass stars. In addition, we measured the orbital motion of VHS J1256−1257 b with respect to the barycenter of VHS J1256−1257 AB, finding that the wide companion’s orbit is also eccentric ($e=0.68^{+0.11}_{-0.10}$), with a mutual inclination of 115○ ± 14○ with respect to the central binary. This orbital architecture is consistent with VHS J1256−1257 b attaining a significant mutual inclination through dynamical scattering and thereafter driving Kozai-Lidov cycles to pump the eccentricity of VHS J1256−1257 AB. We derive a cooling age of 140 ± 20 Myr for VHS J1256−1257 AB from low-mass stellar/substellar evolutionary models. At this age, the luminosity of VHS J1256−1257 b is consistent with both deuterium-inert and deuterium-fusing evolutionary tracks. We thus find a bimodal probability distribution for the mass of VHS J1256−1257 b, either 12.0 ± 0.1 MJup or 16 ± 1 MJup, from these models. Future spectroscopic data to measure isotopologues such as HDO and CH3D could break this degeneracy and provide a strong test of substellar models at the deuterium-fusion mass boundary.
Benchmark brown dwarf companions with well-determined ages and model-independent masses are powerful tools to test substellar evolutionary models and probe the formation of giant planets and brown dwarfs. Here, we report the independent discovery of HIP 21152 B, the first imaged brown dwarf companion in the Hyades, and conduct a comprehensive orbital and atmospheric characterization of the system. HIP 21152 was targeted in an ongoing high-contrast imaging campaign of stars exhibiting proper-motion changes between Hipparcos and Gaia, and was also recently identified by Bonavita et al. (2022) and Kuzuhara et al. (2022). Our Keck/NIRC2 and SCExAO/CHARIS imaging of HIP 21152 revealed a comoving companion at a separation of 0.″37 (16 au). We perform a joint orbit fit of all available relative astrometry and radial velocities together with the Hipparcos-Gaia proper motions, yielding a dynamical mass of 24 − 4 + 6 M Jup , which is 1–2σ lower than evolutionary model predictions. Hybrid grids that include the evolution of cloud properties best reproduce the dynamical mass. We also identify a comoving wide-separation (1837″ or 7.9 × 104 au) early-L dwarf with an inferred mass near the hydrogen-burning limit. Finally, we analyze the spectra and photometry of HIP 21152 B using the Saumon & Marley (2008) atmospheric models and a suite of retrievals. The best-fit grid-based models have f sed = 2, indicating the presence of clouds, T eff = 1400 K, and log g = 4.5 dex . These results are consistent with the object’s spectral type of T0 ± 1. As the first benchmark brown dwarf companion in the Hyades, HIP 21152 B joins the small but growing number of substellar companions with well-determined ages and dynamical masses.
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