Early ComeOn+ Adaptive Optics Observation of GQ Lup and its Substellar Companion

Abstract

An analysis of adaptive optics K-band imaging data of GQ Lup acquired in 1994 by the first generation adaptive optics system ComeOn+ at the ESO 3.6m optical telescope in La Silla is presented. The data reveal a likely candidate for the low-mass companion recently reported in the literature. An a posteriori detection in the 11 year old data would provide a useful astrometric data point for the very long period (~1000 yr) orbit of the GQ Lup system. However, the data is severely contaminated by speckle noise at the given projected separation, which decreases the confidence of the detection. Still, from the data we can conclude that GQ Lup B is not an unrelated background source, but instead a physical companion to GQ Lup A. We present here the reduction and analysis of the ComeOn+ images, as well as the results. We also discuss the nature of the companion based on data and models available in the scientific literature and examine claims made regarding the classification of the object as a planet.

8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Discovery of a Young Substellar Companion in Chamaeleon
• Astrometric follow-up observations of directly imaged sub-stellar companions to young stars and brown dwarfs
• Astrometric and photometric monitoring of GQ Lup and its sub-stellar companion
• First High-Contrast Science with an Integral Field Spectrograph: the Sub-Stellar Companion to GQ Lup
• An ALMA and MagAO Study of the Substellar Companion GQ Lup B
• NACO-SDI direct imaging search for the exoplanet Eps Eri b
• Characterizing the protolunar disk of the accreting companion GQ Lupi B
• The ESO SupJup Survey IV. Unveiling the carbon isotope ratio of GQ Lup B and its host star
• Detection of faint companions through stochastic speckle discrimination
• PeX 1. Multi-spectral expansion of residual speckles for planet detection