A YOUNG PROTOPLANET CANDIDATE EMBEDDED IN THE CIRCUMSTELLAR DISK OF HD 100546

By Sascha P. Quanz, Adam Amara, M. Meyer, M. Kenworthy, M. Kasper, Julien H. Girard. 2013

136 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present high-contrast observations of the circumstellar environment of the Herbig Ae/Be star HD 100546. The final 3.8 μm image reveals an emission source at a projected separation of 0.″48 ± 0.″04 (corresponding to ∼47 ± 4 AU) at a position angle of 8.°9 ± 0.°9. The emission appears slightly extended with a point source component with an apparent magnitude of 13.2  ±  0.4 mag. The position of the source coincides with a local deficit in polarization fraction in near-infrared polarimetric imaging data, which probes the surface of the well-studied circumstellar disk of HD 100546. This suggests a possible physical link between the emission source and the disk. Assuming a disk inclination of ∼47°, the de-projected separation of the object is ∼68 AU. Assessing the likelihood of various scenarios, we favor an interpretation of the available high-contrast data with a planet in the process of forming. Follow-up observations in the coming years can easily distinguish between the different possible scenarios empirically. If confirmed, HD 100546 “b” would be a unique laboratory to study the formation process of a new planetary system, with one giant planet currently forming in the disk and a second planet possibly orbiting in the disk gap at smaller separations.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b22275243b0e18b8127bc7449c909dfc5c2085a3

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Citations in the corpus

• Discovery of a planetary-mass companion within the gap of the transition disk around PDS 70 (2018, background): “Such detections have been reported for a few targets only, namely HD 100546 (Quanz et al. 2013a, 2015; Brittain et al. 2014; Currie et al. 2015), LkCa15 (Kraus & Ireland 2012; Sallum et al. 2015), HD 169142 (Quanz et al. 2013b; Biller et al. 2014; Reggiani et al. 2014), and MWC 758 (Reggiani et al.…”
• Observational Signatures of Planets in Protoplanetary Disks I: Gaps Opened by Single and Multiple Young Planets in Disks (2014, unknown): “…more than a dozen nearby disks have been imaged by 10-meter class mirrors, in particular VLT (e.g. Quanz et al. 2011, 2012; Canovas et al. 2013; Quanz et al. 2013; Garufi et al. 2013, 2014; Avenhaus et al. 2014) and Subaru (the Subaru Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks Survey,…”
• Resolved gas cavities in transitional disks inferred from CO isotopologs with ALMA (2015, background): “Planet candidates have been found in cavities of several transition disks (Kraus & Ireland 2012; Quanz et al. 2013, 2015).”
• Kinematic Evidence for an Embedded Protoplanet in a Circumstellar Disk (2018, methodology): “…imaging have been reported in several discs: HD 100546 (Quanz et al. 2013a; Brittain et al. 2014; Quanz et al. 2015; Currie et al. 2015), LkCa 15 (Kraus & Ireland 2012; Sallum et al. 2015), HD 169142 (Quanz et al. 2013b; Biller et al. 2014; Reggiani et al. 2014), and MWC 758 (Reggiani et al. 2018).”
• Imaging Extrasolar Giant Planets (2016, methodology): “For the youngest protoplanets embedded in their host stars’ circumstellar disks, accretion streams might dominate over thermal photospheric emission, complicating luminosity measurements and mass estimates (e.g., LkCa15 b and HD 100546 b; Kraus & Ireland 2012; Quanz et al. 2013).”
• Dust Evolution and the Formation of Planetesimals (2016, background): “Imaging with VLT/NACO revealed gaps, brightness asymmetries, or spiral patterns that might be indicative of planets (e.g., Quanz et al. 2013a,b; Avenhaus et al. 2014).”
• Protoplanetary disk lifetimes vs stellar mass and possible implications for giant planet populations (2015, background): “…between transitional disks and planets – as demonstrated by several resolved images of planetary mass companions within the gap or cavity (e.g. Huélamo et al. 2011; Kraus & Ireland 2012; Quanz et al. 2013; Close et al. 2014) – makes them a cornerstone for theories of planet formation and evolution.”
• DISCOVERY OF A PROBABLE 4–5 JUPITER-MASS EXOPLANET TO HD 95086 BY DIRECT IMAGING (2013, background): “Also, the (proto-) planet candidates around LkCa 15 (Kraus & Ireland 2012) and HD100546 (Quanz et al. 2013) still require confirmations.”