The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems. III. Aperture Masking Interferometric Observations of the Star HIP 65426 at 3.8 <i>μ</i>m

Abstract We present aperture masking interferometry (AMI) observations of the star HIP 65426 at 3.8 μ m, as part of the JWST Direct Imaging Early Release Science program, obtained using the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph instrument. This mode provides access to very small inner working angles (even separations slightly below the Michelson limit of 0.5 λ / D for an interferometer), which are inaccessible with the classical inner working angles of the JWST coronagraphs. When combined with JWST’s unprecedented infrared sensitivity, this mode has the potential to probe a new portion of parameter space across a wide array of astronomical observations. Using this mode, we are able to achieve a 5 σ contrast of Δ m F380M ∼ 7.62 ± 0.13 mag relative to the host star at separations ​​​​​≳0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>″</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 07 , and the contrast deteriorates steeply at separations ≲0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>″</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 07. However, we detect no additional companions interior to the known companion HIP 65426b (at separation ∼0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>″</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 82 or <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>8</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>7</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>31</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>108</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">au</mml:mi> </mml:math> ). Our observations thus rule out companions more massive than 10–12 M Jup at separations ∼10–20 au from HIP 65426, a region out of reach of ground- or space-based coronagraphic imaging. These observations confirm that the AMI mode on JWST is sensitive to planetary mass companions at close-in separations (≳0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>″</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 07), even for thousands of more distant stars at ∼100 pc, in addition to the stars in the nearby young moving groups and associations, as stated in previous works. This result will allow the planning and successful execution of future observations to probe the inner regions of nearby stellar systems, opening an essentially unexplored parameter space.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Published
2025-04-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adaeb7
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
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article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
3.46

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article

The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems. III. Aperture Masking Interferometric Observations of the Star HIP 65426 at 3.8 μm

Brenda C. Matthews, Joshua E. Schlieder, P. Palma-Bifani, Jens Kammerer et al.
3 citations
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
3.46
article

The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems. III. Aperture Masking Interferometric Observations of the Star HIP 65426 at 3.8 μm

Brenda C. Matthews, Joshua E. Schlieder, P. Palma-Bifani, Jens Kammerer, Christian Marois, Sagnick Mukherjee, Marta L. Bryan, M. Janson, Andrew Skemer, Elena Manjavacas, Maxwell A. Millar‐Blanchaer, Jacqueline K. Faherty, Rachel Cooper, Jéa Adams Redai, Sasha Hinkley, C. A. Grady, Élodie Choquet, Isabel Rebollido, Matthew De Furio, William O. Balmer, Per Calissendorff, Mark Booth, Karl Stapelfeldt, Johanna M. Vos, Jordan Stone, Thayne Currie, Malavika Vasist, Jonathan J. Fortney, F. Cantalloube, Samuel M. Factor, Zackery Briesemeister, Jorge Llop-Sayson, Emily Rickman, Niall Whiteford, Xianyu Tan, Grant M. Kennedy, Michael W. McElwain, Brendan P. Bowler, Stanimir Metchev, Shrishmoy Ray, Anna Lueber, Beth Biller, T. Stolker, M. Bonavita, Marshall D. Perrin, James P. Lloyd, Paul Kalas, Andreï Tokovinin, Sebastián Marino, Matthew D. Kenworthy, Sarah E. Moran, C. Lazzoni, J. H. Girard, Kadin Worthen, Bruce Macintosh, Kimberly Ward-Duong, Schuyler Wolff, Aarynn L. Carter, Trent J. Dupuy, Michael R. Meyer, A. Zurlo, Kevin Wagner, Kellen Lawson, E. Pantin, Christopher A. Theissen, Glenn Schneider, Dean C. Hines, Olivier Absil, Gabriele Cugno, Sarah Betti, Bin Ren, Valentin Christiaens, Genaro Suárez, Dimitri Mawet, Masayuki Kuzuhara, Steph Sallum, Kyle Franson, Sascha P. Quanz, Caroline Morley, M. C. Wyatt, G. Chauvin, Zhoujian Zhang, Ben W. P. Lew, Kielan K. W. Hoch, Callie E. Hood, Daniel Kitzmann, Raquel A. Martinez, B. A. Sargent, Polychronis Patapis, Mark S. Marley, M. Samland, Motohide Tamura, Deepashri Thatte, Alex R. Howe, P. Mollière, P. Kervella, Camilla Danielski, Brittany Miles, Thomas Henning, Eileen C. Gonzales, Jarron Leisenring, Elisabeth C. Matthews, Alexandra Z. Greenbaum, Simon Petrus, Adam L. Kraus, A. Boccaletti, Marie Ygouf, Laurent Pueyo, A. Quirrenbach, A. Vigan, Ben J. Sutlieff, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Yifan Zhou, M. Bonnefoy, Taichi Uyama, Michael C. Liu, Xi Zhang, Christine Chen, Pengyu Liu, Jason Wang, Keming Zhang, Johan Mazoyer, Anne-Marie Lagrange, Pierre-Olivier Lagage, Anand Sivaramkrishnan
article en
3 citations

Abstract

Abstract We present aperture masking interferometry (AMI) observations of the star HIP 65426 at 3.8 μ m, as part of the JWST Direct Imaging Early Release Science program, obtained using the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph instrument. This mode provides access to very small inner working angles (even separations slightly below the Michelson limit of 0.5 λ / D for an interferometer), which are inaccessible with the classical inner working angles of the JWST coronagraphs. When combined with JWST’s unprecedented infrared sensitivity, this mode has the potential to probe a new portion of parameter space across a wide array of astronomical observations. Using this mode, we are able to achieve a 5 σ contrast of Δ m F380M ∼ 7.62 ± 0.13 mag relative to the host star at separations ​​​​​≳0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>″</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 07 , and the contrast deteriorates steeply at separations ≲0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>″</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 07. However, we detect no additional companions interior to the known companion HIP 65426b (at separation ∼0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>″</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 82 or <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>8</mml:mn> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>7</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>31</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>108</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">au</mml:mi> </mml:math> ). Our observations thus rule out companions more massive than 10–12 M Jup at separations ∼10–20 au from HIP 65426, a region out of reach of ground- or space-based coronagraphic imaging. These observations confirm that the AMI mode on JWST is sensitive to planetary mass companions at close-in separations (≳0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>″</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 07), even for thousands of more distant stars at ∼100 pc, in addition to the stars in the nearby young moving groups and associations, as stated in previous works. This result will allow the planning and successful execution of future observations to probe the inner regions of nearby stellar systems, opening an essentially unexplored parameter space.

The Astrophysical Journal LettersVol. 983(1)
Northwestern University (US), University of Geneva (CH), University of Bern (CH), Leiden University (NL), California Institute of Technology (US), Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (CA), Western University (CA), Ames Research Center (US), United States Naval Research Laboratory (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Space Telescope Science Institute (US), Planetary Science Institute (US), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), University of Hawaii System (US), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US), American Museum of Natural History (US), University of Arizona (US), Johns Hopkins University (US), University of California, Santa Barbara (US), University of Liège (BE), University of California, Los Angeles (US), Stockholm University (SE), The University of Queensland (AU), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN), University of California, Santa Cruz (US), Smith College (US), The Open University (GB), University of California, Irvine (US), Université Paris Cité (FR), Trinity College Dublin (IE), Cornell University (US), Aix-Marseille Université (FR), Heidelberg University (DE), University of Exeter (GB), University of Cambridge (GB), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), University of Michigan (US), Observatoire de Paris (FR), ETH Zurich (CH), University of California San Diego (US), University of Warwick (GB), Sorbonne Université (FR), Astrophysique, Instrumentation et Modélisation (FR), Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (US), Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (FR), Royal Observatory (GB), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (FR), Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (US), Astrobiology Center (JP), Château Gombert (FR), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), Laboratoire d’études spatiales et d’instrumentation en astrophysique (FR), Fonctionnement et Conduite des Systèmes de Culture Tropicaux et Méditerranéens (FR), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (GB), Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (FR), CEA Paris-Saclay (FR), AlbaNova (SE), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CL), Eureka Scientific (US), Astronomical Observatory (RS), Millenium Nucleus for Planet Formation (CL), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (ES), National Research Council Canada (CA), Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l'Univers (FR), Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (US), LIRA - Laboratoire d'instrumentation et de recherche en astrophysique (FR), The University of Texas at San Antonio (US), The University of Tokyo (JP), Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE), University of Valparaíso (CL), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE), The University of Texas at Austin (US), Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (US), Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (GR), Université Grenoble Alpes (FR), Universidad Diego Portales (CL), University of California, Berkeley (US), Stanford University (US), University of Edinburgh (GB)
National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Michigan State University, Space Telescope Science Institute, University of Exeter, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, College of Engineering, Michigan State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Observatoire de Paris, Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
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