Direct imaging search of young jovian exoplanets with JWST NIRCam

Stable and extremely sensitive in the near-infrared, JWST extends the detection parameter space to sub-Jupiter and/or temperate (down to 250 to 400 K effective temperature) exoplanets for the first time. We present a group of 3 NIRCam coronagraphic survey guest observer programs (4050, 5835, 6005) in cycles 2 and 3 that targeted 170 nearby young stars at 2.0 and 4.4µm simultaneously. In the first epochs, we have detected about two thousand sources in the 20-arcsecond field of view (long wavelength channel). The majority of those sources are background galaxies and we use the F200W-F444W colors to grossly discriminate them from potential exoplanets. As this process isn’t proof of false positives we also need to check for common proper motion by means of a second epoch. We have hence proposed follow-up observations for the most promising point sources, potential candidate companions. Around each of our stars, we reach a 0.5 MJup sensitivity and in one third of them, we could even potentially detect young Saturn-mass planets! Our survey has also yield numerous debris disk detections, including some first-ever scattered light detections around M and K host stars. To achieve these results, our teams have had to develop and adapt state of the art PSF subtraction and post-processing techniques, making use of curated reference star libraries built with the sample itself. We will briefly describe the associated challenges and how we overcame them.

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Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-06-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20668197
Primary Topic
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Type
article
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article

Direct imaging search of young jovian exoplanets with JWST NIRCam

James Mang, Andrew Skemer, Maxwell A. Millar‐Blanchaer, Aniket Sanghi et al.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
article

Direct imaging search of young jovian exoplanets with JWST NIRCam

James Mang, Andrew Skemer, Maxwell A. Millar‐Blanchaer, Aniket Sanghi, Sasha Hinkley, Skyler Palatnick, Katie A. Crotts, Isabel Rebollido, William O. Balmer, Mark Booth, Rachel Bowens-Rubin, Emily Rickman, Rodrigo Ferrer-Chávez, Shrishmoy Ray, Beth Biller, Marshall D. Perrin, Sebastián Marino, J. H. Girard, Aarynn L. Carter, Michael R. Meyer, Kellen Lawson, Tim D. Pearce, V. Squicciarini, Jarron Leisenring, G. Strampelli, Laurent Pueyo, R. P. Kane, Ben J. Sutlieff, Raphaël Bendahan-West, Yiting Li, Jason Wang, Klaus Subbotina Stephenson, Evelyn Bruinsma
article en

Abstract

Stable and extremely sensitive in the near-infrared, JWST extends the detection parameter space to sub-Jupiter and/or temperate (down to 250 to 400 K effective temperature) exoplanets for the first time. We present a group of 3 NIRCam coronagraphic survey guest observer programs (4050, 5835, 6005) in cycles 2 and 3 that targeted 170 nearby young stars at 2.0 and 4.4µm simultaneously. In the first epochs, we have detected about two thousand sources in the 20-arcsecond field of view (long wavelength channel). The majority of those sources are background galaxies and we use the F200W-F444W colors to grossly discriminate them from potential exoplanets. As this process isn’t proof of false positives we also need to check for common proper motion by means of a second epoch. We have hence proposed follow-up observations for the most promising point sources, potential candidate companions. Around each of our stars, we reach a 0.5 MJup sensitivity and in one third of them, we could even potentially detect young Saturn-mass planets! Our survey has also yield numerous debris disk detections, including some first-ever scattered light detections around M and K host stars. To achieve these results, our teams have had to develop and adapt state of the art PSF subtraction and post-processing techniques, making use of curated reference star libraries built with the sample itself. We will briefly describe the associated challenges and how we overcame them.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Space Telescope Science Institute (US), Johns Hopkins University (US), University of California, Santa Barbara (US), University of California, Santa Cruz (US), University of Exeter (GB), University of Michigan (US), European Space Astronomy Centre (ES), Centro de Astrobiología (ES), Towson University (US), UK Astronomy Technology Centre (GB), University of Edinburgh (GB), Macquarie University (AU)
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Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
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