Archival Legacy Investigations of Circumstellar Environments: Overview and First Results

Abstract

We are currently conducting a comprehensive and consistent re-processing of archival HST-NICMOS coronagraphic surveys using advanced PSF subtraction methods, entitled the Archival Legacy Investigations of Circumstellar Environments program (ALICE, HST/AR 12652). This virtual campaign of about 400 targets has already produced numerous new detections of previously unidentified point sources and circumstellar structures. We present five newly spatially resolved debris disks revealed in scattered light by our analysis of the archival data. These images provide new views of material around young solar-type stars at ages corresponding to the period of terrestrial planet formation in our solar system. We have also detected several new candidate substellar companions, for which there are ongoing followup campaigns (HST/WFC3 and VLT/SINFONI in ADI mode). Since the methods developed as part of ALICE are directly applicable to future missions (JWST, AFTA coronagraph) we emphasize the importance of devising optimal PSF subtraction methods for upcoming coronagraphic imaging missions. We describe efforts in defining direct imaging high-level science products (HLSP) standards that can be applicable to other coronagraphic campaigns, including ground-based (e.g., Gemini Planet Imager), and future space instruments (e.g., JWST). ALICE will deliver a first release of HLSPs to the community through the MAST archive at STScI in 2014.

Proceedings of the SPIE, 9143-199. 17 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
• Optical Images of an Exosolar Planet 25 Light Years from Earth
• Monte Carlo radiative transfer in protoplanetary disks
• Detection of Carbon Monoxide and Water Absorption Lines in an Exoplanet Atmosphere
• WASP-1b and WASP-2b: Two new transiting exoplanets detected with SuperWASP and SOPHIE
• HST/NICMOS detection of HR 8799 b in 1998
• Five Debris Disks Newly Revealed in Scattered Light from the HST NICMOS Archive

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Two accreting protoplanets around the young star PDS 70
• Probing for Exoplanets Hiding in Dusty Debris Disks: Disk Imaging, Characterization, and Exploration with HST/STIS Multi-Roll Coronagraphy
• Discovery of a Substellar Companion to the Nearby Debris Disk Host HR 2562
• First scattered-light images of the gas-rich debris disk around 49 Ceti
• A Layered Debris Disk around M Star TWA 7 in Scattered Light
• Debris Disk Color with the Hubble Space Telescope
• Disk Evolution Study Through Imaging of Nearby Young Stars (DESTINYS): A Panchromatic View of DO Tau's Complex Kilo-au Environment
• Constrained Reference Star Differential Imaging: Enabling High-Fidelity Imagery of Highly Structured Circumstellar Disks
• HST survey of the Orion Nebula Cluster in the H${}_2$O 1.4 $\mu$m absorption band: III. The population of sub-stellar binary companions
• Adaptive optics in high-contrast imaging
• JWST/MIRI coronagraphic performances as measured on-sky