Three Years of High-Contrast Imaging of the PDS 70 b and c Exoplanets at Hα with MagAO-X: Evidence of Strong Protoplanet Hα Variability and Circumplanetary Dust
Fuente:
arXiv
Enregistré dans:
| Auteurs principaux: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Publié: |
2025
|
| Sujets: | |
| Accès en ligne: | |
| Tags: |
Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
|
| _version_ | 1866929720941084672 |
|---|---|
| author | Close, Laird M. Males, Jared R. Li, Jialin Haffert, Sebastiaan Y. Long, Joseph D. Hedglen, Alexander D. Weinberger, Alycia J. Follette, Kate Apai, Daniel Doyon, Rene Foster, Warren Gasho, Victor Van Gorkom, Kyle Guyon, Olivier Kautz, Maggie Y. Kueny, Jay Lumbres, Jennifer McLeod, Avalon McEwen, Eden Pavao, Clarissa Pearce, Logan Perez, Laura Schatz, Lauren Szulágyi, J. Wagner, Kevin Wu, Ya-Lin |
| author_facet | Close, Laird M. Males, Jared R. Li, Jialin Haffert, Sebastiaan Y. Long, Joseph D. Hedglen, Alexander D. Weinberger, Alycia J. Follette, Kate Apai, Daniel Doyon, Rene Foster, Warren Gasho, Victor Van Gorkom, Kyle Guyon, Olivier Kautz, Maggie Y. Kueny, Jay Lumbres, Jennifer McLeod, Avalon McEwen, Eden Pavao, Clarissa Pearce, Logan Perez, Laura Schatz, Lauren Szulágyi, J. Wagner, Kevin Wu, Ya-Lin |
| contents | We present 3 years of high-contrast imaging of the PDS 70 b and c accreting protoplanets with the new extreme AO system MagAO-X as part of the MaxProtoPlanetS survey of H$α$ protoplanets. In 2023 and 2024 our sharp (25-27 mas FWHM); well AO corrected (20-26% Strehl), deep (2-3.6hr) images detect compact (r~30 mas; r~3 au) circumplanetary disks (CPDs) surrounding both protoplanets. Starlight scattering off the dusty outer edges of these CPDs is the likely source of the bright compact continuum light detected within ~30 mas of both planets in our simultaneously obtained continuum 668 nm filter images. After subtraction of contaminating continuum and PSF residuals with pyKLIP ADI and SDI we obtained high-contrast ASDI H$α$ images of both planets in 2022, 2023 and 2024. We find the H$α$ line flux of planet b fell by (8.1$\pm$1.6)x10$^{-16}$ ergs/s/cm$^2$ a factor of 4.6 drop in flux from 2022 to 2023. In March 2024, planet b continued to be faint with just a slight 1.6x rise to an H$α$ line flux of (3.64$\pm$0.87)x10$^{-16}$ ergs/s/cm$^2$. For c we measure a significant increase of (2.74$\pm$0.51)x10$^{-16}$ ergs/s/cm$^2$ from 2023 to 2024 which is a factor of 2.3x increase. So both protoplanets have recently experienced significant H$α$ variability with ~1 yr sampling. In 2024, planet c is brighter than b: as c is brightening and b generally fading. We also tentatively detect one new point source "CC3" inside the inner disk (~49 mas; at PA~295 deg; 2024) with orbital motion roughly consistent with a ~5.6 au orbit. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_14038 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Three Years of High-Contrast Imaging of the PDS 70 b and c Exoplanets at Hα with MagAO-X: Evidence of Strong Protoplanet Hα Variability and Circumplanetary Dust Close, Laird M. Males, Jared R. Li, Jialin Haffert, Sebastiaan Y. Long, Joseph D. Hedglen, Alexander D. Weinberger, Alycia J. Follette, Kate Apai, Daniel Doyon, Rene Foster, Warren Gasho, Victor Van Gorkom, Kyle Guyon, Olivier Kautz, Maggie Y. Kueny, Jay Lumbres, Jennifer McLeod, Avalon McEwen, Eden Pavao, Clarissa Pearce, Logan Perez, Laura Schatz, Lauren Szulágyi, J. Wagner, Kevin Wu, Ya-Lin Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics We present 3 years of high-contrast imaging of the PDS 70 b and c accreting protoplanets with the new extreme AO system MagAO-X as part of the MaxProtoPlanetS survey of H$α$ protoplanets. In 2023 and 2024 our sharp (25-27 mas FWHM); well AO corrected (20-26% Strehl), deep (2-3.6hr) images detect compact (r~30 mas; r~3 au) circumplanetary disks (CPDs) surrounding both protoplanets. Starlight scattering off the dusty outer edges of these CPDs is the likely source of the bright compact continuum light detected within ~30 mas of both planets in our simultaneously obtained continuum 668 nm filter images. After subtraction of contaminating continuum and PSF residuals with pyKLIP ADI and SDI we obtained high-contrast ASDI H$α$ images of both planets in 2022, 2023 and 2024. We find the H$α$ line flux of planet b fell by (8.1$\pm$1.6)x10$^{-16}$ ergs/s/cm$^2$ a factor of 4.6 drop in flux from 2022 to 2023. In March 2024, planet b continued to be faint with just a slight 1.6x rise to an H$α$ line flux of (3.64$\pm$0.87)x10$^{-16}$ ergs/s/cm$^2$. For c we measure a significant increase of (2.74$\pm$0.51)x10$^{-16}$ ergs/s/cm$^2$ from 2023 to 2024 which is a factor of 2.3x increase. So both protoplanets have recently experienced significant H$α$ variability with ~1 yr sampling. In 2024, planet c is brighter than b: as c is brightening and b generally fading. We also tentatively detect one new point source "CC3" inside the inner disk (~49 mas; at PA~295 deg; 2024) with orbital motion roughly consistent with a ~5.6 au orbit. |
| title | Three Years of High-Contrast Imaging of the PDS 70 b and c Exoplanets at Hα with MagAO-X: Evidence of Strong Protoplanet Hα Variability and Circumplanetary Dust |
| topic | Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.14038 |