High contrast imaging at 10 microns, a search for exoplanets around: Eps Indi A, Eps Eri, Tau Ceti, Sirius A and Sirius B

Abstract

The direct imaging of rocky exoplanets is one of the major science goals for upcoming large telescopes. The contrast requirement for imaging such planets is challenging. However, the mid-IR (InfraRed) regime provides the optimum contrast to directly detect the thermal signatures of exoplanets in our solar neighbourhood. We aim to exploit novel fast chopping techniques newly developed for astronomy with the aid of adaptive optics to look for thermal signatures of exoplanets around bright stars in the solar neighbourhood. We use the upgraded VISIR (Very Large Telescope Imager and Spectrometer for the mid-InfraRed) instrument with high contrast imaging (HCI) capability optimized for observations at 10~$\mu$m to look for exoplanets around five nearby ($d$ < 4 pc) stars. The instrument provides an improved signal-to-noise (S/N) by a factor of $\sim$4 in the N-band compared to standard VISIR for a given S/N and time. In this work we achieve a detection sensitivity of sub-mJy, which is sufficient to detect few Jupiter mass planets in nearby systems. Although no detections are made we achieve most sensitive limits within $<2^{\prime \prime }$ for all the observed targets compared to previous campaigns. For $\epsilon$ Indi A and $\epsilon$ Eri we achieve detection limits very close to the giant planets discovered by RV, with the limits on $\epsilon$ Indi A being the most sensitive to date. Our non-detection therefore supports an older age for $\epsilon$ Indi A. The results presented here show the promise for high contrast imaging and exoplanet detections in the mid-IR regime.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (65)

• Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
• Evolutionary models for cool brown dwarfs and extrasolar giant planets. The case of HD 20945
• Improved Age Estimation for Solar-Type Dwarfs Using Activity-Rotation Diagnostics
• Angular Differential Imaging: a Powerful High-Contrast Imaging Technique
• A Unified Theory for the Atmospheres of the Hot and Very Hot Jupiters: Two Classes of Irradiated Atmospheres
• The Gemini Planet Imager: First Light
• Discovery of a planetary-mass companion within the gap of the transition disk around PDS 70
• SPHERE: the exoplanet imager for the Very Large Telescope
• Discovery and spectroscopy of the young Jovian planet 51 Eri b with the Gemini Planet Imager
• Contributions to the Nearby Stars (NStars) Project: Spectroscopy of Stars Earlier than M0 within 40 parsecs: The Southern Sample
• On the Luminosity of Young Jupiters
• The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics system: enabling high-contrast imaging on solar-system scales
• Stellar and substellar companions of nearby stars from Gaia DR2 - Binarity from proper motion anomaly
• Fundamental limitations of high contrast imaging set by small sample statistics
• Spectral and Photometric Diagnostics of Giant Planet Formation Scenarios
• A new set of atmosphere and evolution models for cool T-Y brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets
• Debris disks around Sun-like stars
• Theoretical Spectra and Atmospheres of Extrasolar Giant Planets
• The Sirius System and its Astrophysical Puzzles: Hubble Space Telescope and Ground-Based Astrometry
• Evidence for a Long-period Planet Orbiting Epsilon Eridani
• Gaia Early Data Release 3: Summary of the contents and survey properties
• VIP: Vortex Image Processing package for high-contrast direct imaging
• Discovery of a warm, dusty giant planet around HIP65426
• The Extrasolar Planet epsilon Eridani b - Orbit and Mass
• A Giant Planet Candidate Transiting a White Dwarf
• Epsilon Indi Ba/Bb: the nearest binary brown dwarf
• Accretion of a giant planet onto a white dwarf
• Main-Sequence Effective Temperatures from a Revised Mass-Luminosity Relation Based on Accurate Properties
• Epsilon Eridani's Planetary Debris Disk: Structure and Dynamics based on Spitzer and CSO Observations
• Epsilon Indi B: a new benchmark T dwarf
• Direct confirmation of the radial-velocity planet $\beta$ Pic c
• High-contrast imaging of Sirius~A with VLT/SPHERE: Looking for giant planets down to one astronomical unit
• Direct detection of exoplanets in the 3 -- 10 micron range with E-ELT/METIS
• Epsilon Indi Ba, Bb: a detailed study of the nearest known brown dwarfs
• Color difference makes a difference: four planet candidates around tau Ceti
• Imaging planets around nearby white dwarfs
• The planet search programme at the ESO CES and HARPS. IV. The search for Jupiter analogues around solar-like stars
• The planet search program at the ESO Coude Echelle spectrometer. III. The complete Long Camera survey results
• Detection of the nearest Jupiter analog in radial velocity and astrometry data
• Signals embedded in the radial velocity noise. Periodic variations in the tau Ceti velocities
• Ages of late spectral type Vega-like stars
• Deep exploration of $\epsilon$ Eridani with Keck Ms-band vortex coronagraphy and radial velocities: mass and orbital parameters of the giant exoplanet
• The Age and Progenitor Mass of Sirius B
• The Northern Arc of $\epsilon$ Eridani's Debris Ring as Seen by ALMA
• Deep Keck adaptive optics searches for extrasolar planets in the dust of Epsilon Eridani and Vega
• High-contrast Imaging with Spitzer: Deep Observations of Vega, Fomalhaut, and epsilon Eridani
• Imaging low-mass planets within the habitable zone of α Centauri
• Dynamical Masses of Eps Ind B and C: Two Massive Brown Dwarfs at the Edge of the Stellar-Substellar Boundary
• A comprehensive examination of the Eps Eri system -- Verification of a 4 micron narrow-band high-contrast imaging approach for planet searches
• The Chemical Composition of τ Ceti and Possible Effects on Terrestrial Planets
• The Debris Disk of Solar Analogue $\tau$ Ceti: Herschel Observations and Dynamical Simulations of the Proposed Multiplanet System
• Sirius B Imaged in the Mid-Infrared: No Evidence for a Remnant Planetary System
• ALMA Observations of the Debris Disk of Solar Analogue Tau Ceti
• Asteroseismic modelling of the metal-poor star Tau Ceti
• Imaging search for the unseen companion to Eps Ind A -- Improving the detection limits with 4 micron observations
• Testing the models: NIR imaging and spectroscopy of the benchmark T-dwarf binary Eps Indi B
• RefPlanets: Search for reflected light from extra-solar planets with SPHERE/ZIMPOL
• Piercing the Glare: Direct Imaging Search for Planets in the Sirius System
• An Integrated Analysis with Predictions on the Architecture of the tau Ceti Planetary System, Including a Habitable Zone Planet
• Combining high contrast imaging and radial velocities to constrain the planetary architecture of nearby stars
• A direct and differential imaging search for sub-stellar companions to epsilon Indi A
• Investigating three Sirius-like systems with SPHERE
• The MESAS Project: Long wavelength follow-up observations of Sirius A
• High accuracy short-term PWV operational forecast at the VLT and perspectives for sky background forecast
• ADONIS high contrast infrared imaging of Sirius-B

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Stellar and substellar companions from Gaia EDR3 -- Proper motion anomaly and resolved common proper motion pairs
• A temperate super-Jupiter imaged with JWST in the mid-infrared
• Constraining the Orbit and Mass of epsilon Eridani b with Radial Velocities, Hipparcos IAD-Gaia DR2 Astrometry, and Multi-epoch Vortex Coronagraphy Upper Limits
• Direct emission spectroscopy of exoplanets with the medium resolution imaging spectrometer on board JWST MIRI: I. Molecular mapping and sensitivity to instrumental effects
• Exoplanets with ELT-METIS I: Estimating the direct imaging exoplanet yield around stars within 6.5 parsecs
• Optimized modeling of Gaia-Hipparcos astrometry for the detection of the smallest cold Jupiter and confirmation of seven low mass companions
• A New Method for Finding Nearby White Dwarf Exoplanets and Detecting Biosignatures
• Impact of climate change on site characteristics of eight major astronomical observatories using high-resolution global climate projections until 2050
• Expanding the frontiers of cool-dwarf asteroseismology with ESPRESSO. Detection of solar-like oscillations in the K5 dwarf $\epsilon$ Indi
• Constraints on the nearby exoplanet $\epsilon$ Ind Ab from deep near/mid-infrared imaging limits
• Improved companion mass limits for Sirius A with thermal infrared coronagraphy using a vector-apodizing phase plate and time-domain starlight-subtraction techniques
• SPHERE RefPlanets: Search for epsilon Eridani b and warm dust
• The Direct Mid-Infrared Detectability of Habitable-zone Exoplanets Around Nearby Stars
• Evaluating the GeoSnap 13-$\mu$m Cut-Off HgCdTe Detector for mid-IR ground-based astronomy
• An Imaging Search for Post-Main-Sequence Planets of Sirius B
• Lessons learned from the NEAR experiment and prospects for the upcoming mid-IR HCI instruments