Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2(950), p. L19, 2023

DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/acd6f6

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Astrometric Accelerations as Dynamical Beacons: A Giant Planet Imaged inside the Debris Disk of the Young Star AF Lep

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Abstract We present the direct-imaging discovery of a giant planet orbiting the young star AF Lep, a 1.2 M member of the 24 ± 3 Myr β Pic moving group. AF Lep was observed as part of our ongoing high-contrast imaging program targeting stars with astrometric accelerations between Hipparcos and Gaia that indicate the presence of substellar companions. Keck/NIRC2 observations in L ′ with the vector vortex coronagraph reveal a point source, AF Lep b, at ≈340 mas, which exhibits orbital motion at the 6σ level over the course of 13 months. A joint orbit fit yields precise constraints on the planet’s dynamical mass of 3.2 − 0.6 + 0.7 M Jup, semimajor axis of 8.4 − 1.3 + 1.1 au, and eccentricity of 0.24 − 0.15 + 0.27 . AF Lep hosts a debris disk located at ∼50 au, but it is unlikely to be sculpted by AF Lep b, implying there may be additional planets in the system at wider separations. The stellar inclination (i * = 54 − 9 + 11 ° ) and orbital inclination (i o = 50 − 12 + 9 ° ) are in good agreement, which is consistent with the system having spin–orbit alignment. AF Lep b is the lowest-mass imaged planet with a dynamical mass measurement and highlights the promise of using astrometric accelerations as a tool to find and characterize long-period planets.