SPOTS: The Search for Planets Orbiting Two Stars

Abstract

Direct imaging surveys for exoplanets commonly exclude binary stars from their target lists, leaving a large part of the overall planet demography unexplored. To address this gap in our understanding of planet formation and evolution, we have launched the first directimaging survey dedicated to circumbinary planets: SPOTS, the Search for Planets Orbiting Two Stars. We discuss the theoretical context, scientific merit, and technical feasibility of such observations, describe the target sample and observational strategy of our survey, and report on the first results from our pilot survey of 26 targets with the VLT NaCo facility. While we have not found any confirmed substellar companions to date, a number of promising candidate companions remain to be tested for common proper motion in upcoming follow-up observations. We also report on the astrometry of the three resolved binaries in our target sample. This pilot survey constitutes a successful proof of concept for our survey strategy and paves the way for a second stage in the exploratory observations with VLT SPHERE.

TheβPictoris association: Catalog of photometric rotational periods of low-mass members and candidate members

“…Thalmann et al (2014) Weise et al (2010). A rotation period P = 4.20 d was first reported by Udalski & Geyer (1985); then P = 4.4 d by Lloyd Evans & Koen (1987); P = 4.567 d by Cutispoto (1993); P = 4.25 d by Cutispoto (1996); P = 4.32 d by Cutispoto (1998b); and P = 4.24 d by Cutispoto (1998a).…”

THE LEECH EXOPLANET IMAGING SURVEY: ORBIT AND COMPONENT MASSES OF THE INTERMEDIATE-AGE, LATE-TYPE BINARY NO UMa* †

“…Additional UMaG members are still being proposed, such as the candidate M dwarf members with measured parallaxes in Shkolnik et al (2012), Riedel et al (2014) and Bowler et al (2015). Mamajek et al (2010) present a comprehensive analysis of the UMaG's nuclear membership and kinematics using updated parallaxes from the Hipparcos re-reduction of van Leeuwen (2007). Here we re-evaluate the kinematics of NO UMa using the photocentric motion corrected proper motions from Arenou et al (2000) and the new systemic RV and distance from our orbit fit.…”

“…Thus, NO UMa is an attractive target for high angular resolution, high-contrast AO imaging, not only to resolve the binary components, but also to search for low-mass companions. Stellar binaries are typically excluded from exoplanet imaging surveys, however, NO UMa's component separation is small enough (∼2-3 AU) that circumbinary companions on wide orbits are not dynamically unstable (Thalmann et al 2014, and references therein). Although challenging for planet formation theory (Kley & Haghighipour 2014), recent work has revealed circumbinary disks with the potential to form planets (e.g., Dutrey et al 2014;Tang et al 2014;Rapson et al 2015), a few binaries with directly imaged, circumbinary, planet/brown dwarf companions (Delorme et al 2013;Kraus et al 2014), and numerous circumbinary planets in transit (Welsh et al 2015, and references therein).…”

No circumbinary planets transiting the tightestKeplerbinaries – a possible fingerprint of a third star

“…There is also potential for gravitational lensing and direct imaging (Delorme et al 2013;Thalmann et al 2014) discoveries of long-period circumbinary planets. Finally, GAIA astrometry will be sensitive to potentially hundreds of giant circumbinary planets on periods of a few years, and can even provide a direct measurement of the mutual inclination (Sahlmann et al 2014).…”