The SEEDS High Contrast Imaging Survey of Exoplanets around Young Stellar Objects

The SEEDS High Contrast Imaging Survey of Exoplanets around Young Stellar Objects

Authors:

Uyama et al

Abstract:

We present high-contrast observations of 68 young stellar objects (YSOs) taken as part of the SEEDS survey on the Subaru telescope. Our targets are very young (less than 10 Myr) stars, which often harbor protoplanetary disks where planets may be forming. We achieve typical contransts of ∼10−4-10−5.5 at the angular distance of 1$\arcsec$ from the central star, corresponding to typical mass sensitivities (assuming hot-start evolutionary models) of ∼10 MJ at 70 AU and ∼6 MJ at 140 AU. We have detected a stellar companion to HIP 79462 and confirmed the substellar objects GQ Lup b and ROXs 42B b. An additional six companion candidates await follow-up observations to check for common proper-motion. Our SEEDS YSO observations prove the population of planets and brown dwarfs at the very youngest ages, these may be compared to the results of surveys targeting somewhat older stars. We will present a detailed statistical analysis of our sample and its implications for giant planet formation in a future paper.