A Preliminary Search for Planets and Exozodiacal Emission Around <i>α</i> Centauri A with JWST/MIRI
Abstract We present F1550C (15.5 μ m) coronagraphic imaging observations of the nearest solar-type star α Cen A using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). The observations, executed in 2025 February, were compromised by having only one successful roll and degraded performance due to a position mismatch (Δ r ∼ 10 mas) between α Cen A and the best-matching reference observation behind the MIRI coronagraph. We set preliminary upper limits on both the presence of a planet and an exozodiacal dust disk. The observations are sensitive to a planet heated by α Cen A (200–250 K) with a radius ≳1 R Jup at a separation of 1 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>.</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>″</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 5 (2 au) and zodiacal dust emission at the level of ≳5–10 times the brightness of our own zodiacal cloud. A complete analysis of all JWST/MIRI observations of α Cen A is forthcoming in Paper I (Beichman & Sanghi et al. 2025, in preparation) and Paper II (Sanghi & Beichman et al. 2025, in preparation).
Authors
- Aniket Sanghi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1838-4757)
- Élodie Choquet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9173-0740)
- Alexis Bidot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9799-2303)
- William O. Balmer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6396-8439)
- N. Godoy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0958-2150)
- Charles Beichman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5627-5471)
- Jorge Llop-Sayson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3414-784X)
- G. Bryden (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5966-837X)
- Billy Quarles (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9644-8330)
- E. Serabyn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2491-0694)
- Renyu Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2215-8485)
- E. B. Fomalont (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9036-2747)
- Jonathan Aguilar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3184-0873)
- Michael E. Ressler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5644-8830)
- Kevin Wagner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4309-6343)
- Rachel Akeson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9674-1564)
- Dean C. Hines (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4653-6161)
- Dimitri Mawet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8895-4735)
- M. C. Wyatt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9064-5598)
- Maximilian Sommer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4761-5785)
- P. Kervella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0626-1749)
- Thomas Henning (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1493-300X)
- Jack J. Lissauer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6513-1659)
- Jarron Leisenring (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0834-6140)
- Mantas Zilinskas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8749-823X)
- A. Boccaletti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9353-2724)
- Marie Ygouf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7591-2731)
- Laurent Pueyo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3818-408X)
- Ruslan Belikov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4951-8025)
- Pierre-Olivier Lagage
Publication Details
- Journal
- Research Notes of the AAS
- Published
- 2025-05-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/add880
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.31