Euclid: Early Release Observations - A glance at free-floating newborn planets in the σ Orionis cluster☆

We provide an early assessment of the imaging capabilities of the Euclid space mission to deeply probe nearby star-forming regions and associated very young open clusters, and in particular, to determine to which extent it can shed light into the newborn free- floating planet population. This paper focusses on a low-reddening region observed in just one Euclid pointing. The dust and gas has been cleared out from the region by the hot sigma Orionis star. One late-M and six known spectroscopically confirmed L-type ultracool members in the sigma Orionis cluster were used as benchmarks to provide a high-purity procedure to select new candidate members with Euclid. The exquisite angular resolution and depth delivered by the Euclid instruments allowed us to focus on bona fide point sources. A cleaned sample of sigma Orionis cluster substellar members was produced, and the initial mass function (IMF) was estimated by combining Euclid and Gaia data. Our sigma Orionis substellar IMF is consistent with a power-law distribution without a significant steepening at the planetary-mass end. No evidence of a low-mass cutoff is found down to the detection limit of this study at 4 Jupiter masses in the very young sigma Orionis open cluster.

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Journal
MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society)
Published
2025-04-30
Primary Topic
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
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article
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article

Euclid: Early Release Observations - A glance at free-floating newborn planets in the σ Orionis cluster☆

P. Simon, E. Maiorano, D. Scott, T. Vassallo et al.
MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society)
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
article

Euclid: Early Release Observations - A glance at free-floating newborn planets in the σ Orionis cluster☆

P. Simon, E. Maiorano, D. Scott, T. Vassallo, L. Valenziano, E. Branchini, F. Dubath, R. Scaramella, F. Courbin, M. Frailis, S. Bardelli, S. Cavuoti, O. Marggraf, A. Cimatti, M. Fumana, S. Mei, M. Seiffert, S. Serrano, E. Medinaceli, A. Di Giorgio, B. Gillis, W. Percival, H. Degaudenzi, O. Williams, K. Jahnke, S. Camera, J. Martin-Fleitas, C. Giocoli, S. Andreon, A. Perez-Garrido, A. Balestra, S. Ferriol, R. Toledo-Moreo, L. Pozzetti, M. Kuemmel, S. Pires, A. Mora, E. Zucca, E. Martin, Y. Wang, N. Martinet, W. Gillard, C. Conselice, P. Hudelot, J. Weller, G. Congedo, G. Seidel, J. Dinis, T. Kitching, I. Tutusaus, M. Cropper, M. Farina, A. Renzi, L. Moscardini, E. Romelli, B. Altieri, B. Goldman, F. Pasian, R. Massey, S. Haugan, R. Saglia, S. Farrens, F. Raison, G. Meylan, P. Fosalba, J. Mohr, D. Martin-Gonzalez, S. Niemi, M. Castellano, B. Kubik, H. Teplitz, M. Kunz, D. Hu, I. Lloro, J. Rhodes, M. Meneghetti, A. Basset, B. Sartoris, G. Willis, X. Dupac, S. Dusini, D. Sapone, J. Cuillandre, G. Verdoes Kleijn, C. Baccigalupi, G. Racca, A. Hornstrup, L. Corcione, M. Schirmer, M. Melchior, G. Sirri, A. Secroun, K. Pedersen, C. Carbone, S. Points, A. Ealet, D. Barrado, F. Marulli, H. Bouy, G. Polenta, A. Tsyganov, S. Galeotta, N. Sedighi, A. Escobar, V. Pettorino, E. Keihanen, C. Dominguez-Tagle, M. Zerjal, A. Da Silva, J. Olivares, V. Bejar, R. Tata, D. Maino, M. Sauvage, S. Ligori, J. Zhang, Y. Copin, H. Kurki-Suonio, S. Paltani, C. del Burgo, T. Saifollahi, E. Rossetti, N. Vitas, H. Courtois, C. Reyle, P. Mas-Buitrago, P. Schneider, S. Casewell, L. Popa, J. Hoar, D. Le Mignant, R. Laureijs, N. Phan-Bao, V. Capobianco, M. Jhabvala, O. Mansutti, R. Kohley, N. Huelamo, P. Lilje, P. Cruz, D. Bonino, S. Kermiche, G. Riccio, M. Poncet, J. Carretero, S. Casas, I. Tereno, W. Holmes, R. Smart, S. Tsilia, M. Brescia, A. Ayadi, L. Guzzo, F. Grupp, S. Munoz Torres, M. Baldi, R. Rebolo, B. Garilli, M. Zapatero Osorio, P. Gomez-Alvarez, N. Lodieu, C. Sirignano, M. Kilbinger, Y. Mellier, M. Roncarelli, M. Moresco, C. Padilla, E. Solano, H. Rix, A. Grazian, E. Franceschi, I. Hook, A. Taylor, R. Bender, N. Aghanim, H. Hoekstra, N. Auricchio, P. Tallada-Crespi, V. Lindholm, L. Stanco, L. Conversi, F. Hormuth, J. Brinchmann, A. Kiessling
article en

Abstract

We provide an early assessment of the imaging capabilities of the Euclid space mission to deeply probe nearby star-forming regions and associated very young open clusters, and in particular, to determine to which extent it can shed light into the newborn free- floating planet population. This paper focusses on a low-reddening region observed in just one Euclid pointing. The dust and gas has been cleared out from the region by the hot sigma Orionis star. One late-M and six known spectroscopically confirmed L-type ultracool members in the sigma Orionis cluster were used as benchmarks to provide a high-purity procedure to select new candidate members with Euclid. The exquisite angular resolution and depth delivered by the Euclid instruments allowed us to focus on bona fide point sources. A cleaned sample of sigma Orionis cluster substellar members was produced, and the initial mass function (IMF) was estimated by combining Euclid and Gaia data. Our sigma Orionis substellar IMF is consistent with a power-law distribution without a significant steepening at the planetary-mass end. No evidence of a low-mass cutoff is found down to the detection limit of this study at 4 Jupiter masses in the very young sigma Orionis open cluster.

MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society)
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Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
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