Neuhaeuser et al. (2005) presented direct imaging evidence for a sub-stellar companion to the young T Tauri star GQ Lup. Common proper motion was highly significant, but no orbital motion was detected. Faint luminosity, low gravity, and a late-M/early-L spectral type indicated that the companion is either a planet or a brown dwarf. We have monitored GQ Lup and its companion in order to detect orbital and parallactic motion and variability in its brightness. We also search for closer and fainter companions. We have taken six more images with the VLT Adaptive Optics instrument NACO from May 2005 to Feb 2007, always with the same calibration binary from Hipparcos for both astrometric and photometric calibration. By adding up all the images taken so far, we search for additional companions. The position of GQ Lup A and its companion compared to a nearby non-moving background object varies as expected for parallactic motion by about one pixel (2 πwith parallax π). We could not find evidence for variability of the GQ Lup companion in the K-band (standard deviation being \pm 0.08 mag), which may be due to large error bars. No additional companions are found with deep imaging. There is now exceedingly high significance for common proper motion of GQ Lup A and its companion. In addition, we see for the first time an indication for orbital motion (about 2 to 3 mas/yr decrease in separation, but no significant change in the position angle), consistent with a near edge-on or highly eccentric orbit. We measured the parallax for GQ Lup A to be π= 6.4 \pm 1.9 mas (i.e. 156 \pm 50 pc) and for the GQ Lup companion to be 7.2 \pm 2.1 mas (i.e. 139 \pm 45 pc), both consistent with being in the Lupus I cloud and bound to each other.
The recently discovered substellar companion to GQ Lup possibly represents a direct test of current planet formation theories. We examine the possible formation scenarios for the companion to GQ Lup assuming it is a $\sim$2 M$_{Jup}$ object. We determine that GQ Lup B most likely was scattered into a large, eccentric orbit by an interaction with another planet in the inner system. If this is the case, several directly observable predictions can be made, including the presence of a more massive, secondary companion that could be detected through astrometry, radial velocity measurements, or scup…
An analysis of adaptive optics K-band imaging data of GQ Lup acquired in 1994 by the first generation adaptive optics system ComeOn+ at the ESO 3.6m optical telescope in La Silla is presented. The data reveal a likely candidate for the low-mass companion recently reported in the literature. An a posteriori detection in the 11 year old data would provide a useful astrometric data point for the very long period (~1000 yr) orbit of the GQ Lup system. However, the data is severely contaminated by speckle noise at the given projected separation, which decreases the confidence of the detection. Stil…
Recently, Neuhaeuser et al. (2005) presented evidence for a sub-stellar, common proper motion companion to GQ Lup. With two theoretical mass estimates, both below the Deuterium burning minimum mass limit, the companion is probably a planet imaged directly. We present here a more detailed astrometric analysis of the GQ Lup system, using all the (different) proper motions published for the primary. The common proper motion is significant in all cases, also when taking into account the error in parallax or distance (140 +- 50 pc). When using the weighted mean, the significance for common proper m…
The first substellar companion of possibly planetary mass around a normal star, GQ Lup, has been directly imaged (Neuhaeuser et al., 2005). Besides the unknown formation history, the mass of such an object is a criterion to decide about its true nature. We aim to determine the physical properties of the GQ Lup companion - effective temperate and surface gravity, and thus its mass independently from evolutionary models. We use the adaptive optics integral-field spectrograph SINFONI at the VLT for near-infrared spectroscopy from 1.1 to 2.5 um with a resolution of R = 2500--4000. We compare these…
We present a companion of the \le 2 Myr young classical T Tauri star GQ Lup in the Lupus star forming region at 140 \pm 50 pc from imaging, astrometry, and spectroscopy. With direct K-band imaging using VLT/NACO, we detected an object 6 mag fainter than GQ Lup located 0.7 arc sec west of it. Compared to images obtained 2 to 5 years earlier with Subaru/CIAO and HST/PC, this object shares the proper motion of GQ Lup by 5 and 7 sigma, respectively, hence it is a co-moving companion. Its K-L' color is consistent with a spectral type early to mid L. Our NACO K-band spectrum yields spectral type M9-…
We present commissioning data from the OSIRIS integral field spectrograph (IFS) on the Keck II 10 m telescope that demonstrate the utility of adaptive optics IFS spectroscopy in studying faint close-in sub-stellar companions in the haloes of bright stars. Our R~2000 J- and H-band spectra of the sub-stellar companion to the 1-10 Myr-old GQ Lup complement existing K-band spectra and photometry, and improve on the original estimate of its spectral type. We find that GQ Lup B is somewhat hotter (M6-L0) than reported in the discovery paper by Neuhauser and collaborators (M9-L4), mainly due to the s…
We compile the observational evidence for the three recently presented planet candidates imaged directly and derive in a homogeneous way their temperatures and masses. For both AB Pic b and 2M1207 b, we derive a larger temperature range than in Chauvin et al. (2004, 2005b). AB Pic b appears to be quite similar as GQ Lup b, but older. According to the Tucson and Lyon models, all three companions could either be planets or brown dwarfs. According to the Wuchterl formation model, the masses seem to be below the D burning limit. We discuss whether the three companions can be classified as planets,…
The Palomar High-precision Astrometric Search for Exoplanet Systems (PHASES) has monitored 37 sub-arcsecond binary systems to determine whether their Keplerian orbits are perturbed by faint astrometric companions to either star. Software has been developed to evaluate the regions in a companion mass-period phase space in which the PHASES observations can exclude the possibility of face-on orbit perturbations. We present results for 8 systems for which astrometric companions with masses as small as those of giant planets can be excluded.
Using NACO on the VLT in the imaging mode we have detected an object at a distance of only 0.7 arcsec from GQ Lup. The object turns out to be co-moving. We have taken two K-band spectra with a resolution of lambda /Delta lambda=700. In here, we analyze the spectra in detail. We show that the shape of spectrum is not spoiled by differences in the Strehl ratio in the blue and in the red part, as well as differential refraction. We reanalyze the spectra and derive the spectral type of the companion using classical methods. We find that the object has a spectral type between M9V and L4V, which cor…
In this paper, we investigate the effect of a wide binary companion of the lens on the astrometric behavior of Galactic gravitational microlensing events and compare it to the effect on the photometric behavior. We find that the wide binary companion of the lens can affect the centroid motion of images substantially even if the corresponding light curve appears to be the one of a standard single point-mass lens event. The relatively significant effect of the wide binary lens on the astrometric lensing behavior, on one side, calls for careful consideration of the lens binarity in analyzing the …
We have re-analyzed archival HST and Subaru data of the recently discovered planetary mass companion (PMC) GQ Lup B. With these we produce the first R and I band photometry of the companion and fit a radius and effective temperature using detailed model atmospheres. We find an effective temperature of 2335 +/- 100K, and a radius of 0.38 +/- 0.05 Rsol and luminosity of log(L/Lsol) = -2.42 +/- 0.07 (at 140pc). Since we fit wavelengths that span most of the emitted radiation from GQ Lup this luminosity estimate is robust, with uncertainty dominated by the distance uncertainty (+/- 50 pc). The rad…
Gizis et al. (2001) reported a companion candidate of spectral type L1 near the K2 dwarf GJ 1048 using the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS). At that time it was not possible to verify companionship astrometrically using the 2MASS data alone due to the small proper motion of GJ 1048. We now show that both objects share the same proper motion by using data from the UK Schmidt Telescope Near-infrared (IVN) Southern Survey as the first epoch and data from 2MASS as the second epoch. Our technique of subtracting the PSF of the primary from the SuperCOSMOS I scans of the Southern Survey enables the …
In our ongoing deep infrared imaging search for faint wide secondaries of planet-candidate host stars we have confirmed astrometrically the companionship of a low-mass object to be co-moving with HD89744, a companion-candidate suggested already by Wilson et al. (2000). The derivation of the common proper motion of HD89744 and its companion, which are separated by 62.996+-0.035 arcsec, is based on about 5 year epoch difference between 2MASS and our own UKIRT/UFTI images. The companion effective temperature is about 2200 K and its mass is in the range between 0.072 and 0.081 Msun, depending on t…
If gravitational microlensing occurs in a binary-source system, both source components are magnified, and the resulting light curve deviates from the standard one of a single source event. However, in most cases only one source component is highly magnified and the other component (the companion) can be treated as a simple blending source: blending approximation. In this paper, we show that, unlike the light curves, the astrometric curves, representing the trajectories of the source image centroid, of an important fraction of binary-source events will not be sufficiently well modeled by the bl…
We report VLT/NACO imaging observations of the stars GSC 08047-00232 and HIP 6856, probable members of the large Tucana-Horologium association. During our previous ADONIS/SHARPII deep imaging survey, a substellar candidate companion was discovered around each star. Based on VLT/NACO astrometric measurements, we find that GSC 08047-00232 and the faint candidate companion near to it share the same proper motion with a significance of 3.1sigma. On the contrary, the candidate companion to HIP 6856 is probably a background object with a significance of 4.3sigma. We also detect a new fainter and clo…
The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) is expected to make precise astrometric measurements that can be used to detect low mass planets around nearby stars. Since most nearby stars are members of multiple star systems, many stars will have a measurable acceleration due to their companion, which must be included when solving for astrometric parameters and searching for planetary perturbations. Additionally, many of the stars with one radial velocity planet show indications of additional planets. Therefore, astrometric surveys like SIM must be capable of detecting planets and measuring orbital p…
The combination of Hipparcos astrometric data with the spectroscopic data of putative extrasolar planets seems to indicate that a significant fraction of these low-mass companions could be brown or M dwarfs Han et al. (2001). We show that this is due to the adopted reduction procedure, and consequently that the Hipparcos data do not reject the planetary mass hypothesis in all but one cases. Additional companions, undetected so far, might also explain the large astrometric residuals of some of these stars.
We present spectro-astrometric observations for 28 southern pre-main sequence (PMS) stars and investigate their circumstellar environment down to AU scales. The structures detected in the ``position spectra'' include: (1) almost all the known binary companions in our sample (Sz 68, Sz 41, HO Lup, VW Cha, S CrA, AS 205), (2) companion candidates which have not been detected by infrared speckle techniques (T CrA, MWC 300), (3) monopolar and bipolar jets (AS 353A, CS Cha), (4) a combination of jets and a bow shock (VV CrA), and (5) a combination of a jet and stellar companion (R CrA). Results in …
The Stellar Planet Survey (STEPS) is an ongoing astrometric search for giant planets and brown dwarfs around a sample of ~30 M-dwarfs. We have discovered several low-mass companions by measuring the motion of our target stars relative to their reference frames. We describe the STEPS method for stellar centroiding that enables our ~1 milliarcsecond relative astrometry. We describe one of the astrometrically discovered companions, GJ 1210B, which was later confirmed with an imaging observation. GJ 1210 A and B have spectral types M4-5, based on their luminosities, inferred masses, and colors.
We report spectroscopic observations of the star HIP 50796, previously considered (but later rejected) as a candidate member of the TW Hya association. Our measurements reveal it to be a single-lined binary with an orbital period of 570 days and an eccentricity of e = 0.61. The astrometric signature of this orbit was previously detected by the HIPPARCOS satellite in the form of curvature in the proper motion components, although the period was unknown at the time. By combining our radial velocity measurements with the HIPPARCOS intermediate data (abscissae residuals) we are able to derive the …
Hipparcos Intermediate Astrometric Data (IAD) have been used to derive astrometric orbital elements for spectroscopic binaries from the newly released Ninth Catalogue of Spectroscopic Binary Orbits (SB9). Among the 1374 binaries from SB9 which have an HIP entry, 282 have detectable orbital astrometric motion (at the 5% significance level). Among those, only 70 have astrometric orbital elements that are reliably determined (according to specific statistical tests discussed in the paper), and for the first time for 20 systems, representing a 10% increase relative to the 235 DMSA/O systems alread…
We report the discovery of a companion to the high proper motion star LHS 1589, a nearby high-velocity, low-mass subdwarf. The companion (LHS 1589B) is located 0.224+/-0.004" to the southwest of the primary (LHS 1589A), and is 0.5 magnitude fainter than the primary in the K_s band. The pair was resolved with the IRCAL infrared camera at Lick Observatory, operating with the Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics system. A low-resolution spectrum of the unresolved pair obtained at the MDM observatory shows the source to be consistent with a cool subdwarf of spectral subtype sdK7.5. A photometric dista…
A set of 41 nearby stars (closer than 25 pc) is investigated which have very wide binary and common proper motion (CPM) companions at projected separations between 1000 and $200 000$ AU. These companions are identified by astrometric positions and proper motions from the NOMAD catalog. Based mainly on measures of chromospheric and X-ray activity, age estimation is obtained for most of 85 identified companions. Color -- absolute magnitude diagrams are constructed to test if CPM companions are physically related to the primary nearby stars and have the same age. Our carefully selected sample inc…
The Stellar Planet Survey is an ongoing astrometric search for giant planets and brown dwarfs around a sample of about 30 M-dwarfs. We have discovered several low-mass companions by measuring the motion of our target stars relative to their reference frames. The lowest mass discovery thus far is GJ 802b, a companion to the M5-dwarf GJ 802A. The orbital period is 3.14 +/- 0.03 y, the system mass is 0.214 +/- 0.045 Msolar, and the semi-major axis is 1.28 +/- 0.10 AU or 81 +/- 6 mas. Imaging observations indicate that GJ 802b is likely to be a brown dwarf with the astrometrically determined mass …
We discuss a method to determine orbital properties and masses of low-mass bodies orbiting eclipsing binaries. The analysis combines long-term eclipse timing modulations (light-travel time or LTT effect) with short-term, high-accuracy astrometry. As an illustration of the method, the results of a comprehensive study of Hipparcos astrometry and over a hundred years of eclipse timings of the Algol-type eclipsing binary R Canis Majoris are presented. A simultaneous solution of the astrometry and the LTTs yields an orbital period of P_12=92.8+/-1.3 yr, an LTT semiamplitude of 2574+/-57 s, an angul…
Doppler spectroscopy of rho1 Cnc has detected evidence of a companion with an orbital period of 14.65 days and a minimum mass of 0.88 Jupiter masses. Astrometric observations performed with the Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor 1r using a novel new observing technique have placed an upper limit on the astrometric reflex motion of rho1 Cnc in a time period of only one month. These observations detected no reflex motion induced by the 14.65 day period radial velocity companion, allowing us to place a 3-sigma upper limit of \~0.3 milliarcseconds on the semi-major axis of this motion, ru…
The Stellar Planet Survey (STEPS) is an ongoing astrometric search for giant planets and brown dwarfs around a sample of ~30 M-dwarfs. We have discovered several low-mass companions by measuring the motion of our target stars relative to their reference frames. The highest mass discovery thus far is G 78-28B, a companion to the M-dwarf G 78-28A. The orbital period is 4.18 +/- 0.03 y, the system mass is 0.565 +/- 0.055 Msolar, and the semi-major axis is 2.19 +/- 0.10 AU. Imaging observations with the Keck laser guide star adaptive optics (LGSAO) and the Palomar AO instruments resolved the syste…
Recent investigations (e.g. Han et al. 2001) have shown that fitting the Hipparcos observations with an orbital model when the astrometric wobble caused by the companion is below the noise level can have rather unexpected consequences. With new astrometric missions coming out within the next ten years, it is worth investigating the orbit reconstruction capabilities of such instruments at low signal-to-noise ratio. This is especially important because some of them will have no input catalogue thus meaning that all the orbital parameters will have to be derived from scratch. The puzzling case of…
The results of a comprehensive infrared imaging search for the putative 0.06 solar mass astrometric companion to the 4.4 pc white dwarf van Mannen 2 are reported. Adaptive optics images acquired at 3.8 microns reveal a diffraction limited core of 0.09" and no direct evidence of a secondary. Models predict that at 5 Gyr, a 50 jupiter mass brown dwarf would be only 1 magnitude fainter than van Maanen 2 at this wavelength and the astrometric analysis suggested a separation of 0.2". In the case of a chance alignment along the line of sight, a 0.4 mag excess should be measured. An independent photo…
A considerable number of astrometric binaries whose positions on the sky do not obey the standard model of mean position, parallax and linear proper motion, were observed by the Hipparcos satellite. Some of them remain non-discovered, and their observational data have not been properly processed with the more adequate astrometric model that includes nonlinear orbital motion. We develop an automated algorithm based on "genetic optimization", to solve the orbital fitting problem with no prior information about the orbital elements is available (from, e.g., spectroscopic data or radial velocity m…
We present new astrometric and spectroscopic data to confirm two new M/L dwarf systems, G124-62 and LHS5166, and discuss the nature of a third system (LP261-75). Age and thus mass determinations of the L dwarf companions are discussed based on various activity-age relationships of the M dwarf primaries. This publication will update the list of widely separated substellar companions to nearby stars.
We present the first results of a large imaging survey to identify wide brown dwarf companions to stars within 10 pc. We have performed a deep (H-band limit ~ 19.0 mag), wide field (up to 16x16 arcmin) astrometric imaging campaign in two epochs around more than 230 nearby stars. Preliminary results show that the wide low-mass companion fraction is far lower than expected, indicating that interactions with the galactic disk may have removed the weakly bound wide companions around old stars.
Multiple-epoch, multicolor images of the astrometric binary Gliese 105A and its very low mass companion Gliese 105C have been obtained using the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). The optical and near-infrared colors of Gl 105C strongly suggest a spectral type of M7V for that star. Relative astrometric measurements spanning 3 yr reveal the first evidence of Gl 105C's orbital motion. Previous long-term astrometric studies at Sproul and McCormick Observatories have shown that the period of Gl 105A's pert…
We investigate the choice of stellar population for use as the Astrometric Grid for the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). SIM depends on the astrometric stability of about 2000 stars, the so called Grid, against which the science measures are referenced. Low metallicity, and thus relatively high luminosity K giants are shown to be the population of choice, when available. The alternative, nearby G dwarfs, are shown to be suseptable to unmodeled motions induced by gas-giant planetary companions, should there be a significant population of such companions. Radial velocity filtering is quite ef…
We discovered a low-mass companion to the M-dwarf GJ 164 with the CCD-based imaging system of the Stellar Planet Survey (STEPS) astrometric program. The existence of GJ 164B was confirmed with Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS imaging observations. A high-dispersion spectral observation in V sets a lower limit of delta m> 2.2 mag between the two components of the system. Based upon our parallax value of 0.082 +/- 0.008, we derive the following orbital parameters: P = 2.04 +/- 0.03 y, a = 1.03 +/- 0.03 AU, and Mtotal = 0.265 +/- 0.020 MSun. The component masses are MA = 0.170 +/- 0.015 MSun and MB …
Grid stars and reference stars provide the fundamental global and local astrometric reference frames for observations by the Space Interferometry Mission. They must therefore be astrometrically stable at the ~1 uas level. I present simple formulae in closed form to estimate contamination of these frames by motions due to stellar companions that go undetected in a radial-velocity (RV) survey of specified precision. The contamination rate depends almost entirely on the binary-period distribution function and not on the details of the mass or eccentricity distributions. Screening by a modest RV s…
An extra-solar planet can be detected by microlensing because the planet can perturb the smooth lensing light curve created by the primary lens. However, it was shown by Gaudi that a subset of binary-source events can produce light curves that closely resemble those produced by a significant fraction of planet/star lens systems, causing serious contamination of a sample of suspected planetary systems detected via microlensing. In this paper, we show that if a lensing event is observed astrometrically, one can unambiguously break the photometric degeneracy between binary-source and planetary le…
We present velocity-resolved spectro-astrometric imaging of the 4.7 $μ$m rovibrational lines of CO gas in protoplanetary disks using the CRIRES high resolution infrared spectrometer on the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The method as applied to three disks with known dust gaps or inner holes out to 4-45 AU (SR 21, HD 135344B and TW Hya) achieves an unprecedented spatial resolution of $0.1-0.5$ AU. While one possible gap formation mechanism is dynamical clearing by giant planets, other equally good explanations (stellar companions, grain growth, photo-evaporation) exist. One way of distinguishing …
We present the results of multi epochs imaging observations of the companion to the planetary host Gliese 86. Associated to radial velocity measurements, this study aimed at characterizing dynamically the orbital properties and the mass of this companion (here after Gliese 86 B), but also at investigating the possible history of this particular system. We used the adaptive optics instrument NACO at the ESO Very Large Telescope to obtain deep coronographic imaging in order to determine new photometric and astrometric measurements of Gliese 86 B. Part of the orbit is resolved. The photometry of …
We analyzed the Hipparcos astrometric observations of 47 stars that were discovered to harbor giant planets and 14 stars with brown-dwarf secondary candidates. The Hipparcos measurements were used together with the corresponding stellar radial-velocity data to derive an astrometric orbit for each system. To find out the significance of the derived astrometric orbits we applied a "permutation" technique by which we analyzed the permuted Hipparcos data to get false orbits. The size distribution of these false orbits indicated the range of possibly random, false orbits that could be derived from …
