Latest Results from the DODO Survey: Imaging Planets around White Dwarfs

Abstract

The aim of the Degenerate Objects around Degenerate Objects (DODO) survey is to search for very low mass brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets in wide orbits around white dwarfs via direct imaging. The direct detection of such companions would allow the spectroscopic investigation of objects with temperatures lower (<500 K) than the coolest brown dwarfs currently observed. The discovery of planets around white dwarfs would prove that such objects can survive the final stages of stellar evolution and place constraints on the frequency of planetary systems around their progenitors (with masses between 1.5–8 M⊙, i.e., early B to mid‐F). An increasing number of planetary mass companions have been directly imaged in wide orbits around young main sequence stars. For example, the planets around HR 8799 and 1RXS J160929.1–210524 are in wide orbits of 24–68 AU and 330 AU, respectively. The DODO survey has the ability to directly image planets in post‐main sequence analogues of these systems. These proceedings present the latest results of our multi‐epoch J band common proper motion survey of nearby white dwarfs.