Abstract
Context. Though only a handful of extrasolar planets have been discovered via direct imaging, each of these discoveries had tremendous impact on our understanding of planetary formation, stellar formation and cool atmosphere physics. Aims. Since many of these newly imaged giant planets orbit massive A or even B stars we investigated whether giant planets could be found orbiting low-mass stars at large separations. Methods. We have been conducting an adaptive optic imaging survey to search for planetary-mass companions of young M dwarfs of the solar neigbourhood, to probe different initial conditions of planetary formation. Results. We report here the direct imaging discovery of 2MASS J01033563-5515561(AB)b, a 12-14 MJup companion at a projected separation of 84 AU from a pair of young late M stars, with which it shares proper motion. We also detected a Keplerian-compatible orbital motion. Conclusions. This young L-type object at planet/brown dwarf mass boundary is the first ever imaged around a binary system at a separation compatible with formation in a disc.
Highlights
Though only a handful of extrasolar planets have been discovered via direct-imaging, each of these discoveries had a tremendous impact on our understanding of planetary formation, stellar formation, and cool atmosphere physics
Since many of these newly imaged giant planets orbit massive A or even B stars, we investigate whether giant planets could be found orbiting low-mass stars at large separations
This young L-type object at the planet/brown dwarf mass boundary is the first ever imaged around a binary system at a separation compatible with formation in a disc
Summary
The discovery of hundreds of extrasolar planets in the past 20 years has radically modified our understanding of planetary formation. Chauvin et al 2005; Lafrenière et al 2008; Carson et al 2013) straddle the arbitrary -and debated- 13 MJup planet/brown dwarf boundary For most of these massive planets (or light brown dwarfs) the formation mechanism, stellar or planetar, is still being debated (Luhman et al 2006; Bate 2009; Rafikov 2011; Boss 2011; Stamatellos et al 2011). Based on observations obtained with NACO on VLT UT-4 at ESOParanal (runs 090.C-0698(A) and 70.D-0444(A) Circumbinary planets, such as Kepler-16 ABb (Doyle et al 2011), are even rarer, and they provide peculiar constraints on planetary formation scenarios, notably on the influence of binarity on planet-forming discs. We present here the discovery of 2MASS J010335635515561ABb, hereafter 2MASS0103(AB)b, a unique 12–14 MJup substellar companion to a late M dwarf binary system
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