TW Hydrae is Forming a SubSaturn Gas Giant

Deep imaging search for planets forming in the TW Hya protoplanetary disk with the Keck/NIRC2 vortex coronagraph


Authors:

Ruane et al

Abstract:
Distinct gap features in the nearest protoplanetary disk, TW Hya (distance of 59.5±0.9 pc), may be signposts of ongoing planet formation. We performed long-exposure thermal infrared coronagraphic imaging observations to search for accreting planets especially within dust gaps previously detected in scattered light and submm-wave thermal emission. Three nights of observations with the Keck/NIRC2 vortex coronagraph in L′ (3.4-4.1μm) did not reveal any statistically significant point sources. We thereby set strict upper limits on the masses of non-accreting planets. In the four most prominent disk gaps at 24, 41, 47, and 88 au, we obtain upper mass limits of 1.6-2.3, 1.1-1.6, 1.1-1.5, and 1.0-1.2 Jupiter masses (MJ) assuming an age range of 7-10 Myr for TW Hya. These limits correspond to the contrast at 95\% completeness (true positive fraction of 0.95) with a 1\% chance of a false positive within 1′′ of the star. We also approximate an upper limit on the product of planet mass and planetary accretion rate of MpM˙≲10−8M2J/yr implying that any putative ∼0.1MJ planet, which could be responsible for opening the 24 au gap, is presently accreting at rates insufficient to build up a Jupiter mass within TW Hya's pre-main sequence lifetime.