Confirmation and characterization of the protoplanet HD100546 b - Direct evidence for gas giant planet formation at 50 au

TL;DR

This study confirms a protoplanet in the disk of HD100546 at 50 au using multi-wavelength high-contrast imaging, providing insights into gas giant planet formation at large orbital distances.

Contribution

First multi-wavelength imaging confirmation of a protoplanet at 50 au, with detailed characterization and implications for planet formation theories.

Findings

Detected at L' and M' bands, not at Ks band.

Derived temperature of approximately 932 K and radius of about 7 Jupiter radii.

Physical separation of 53 au challenges standard planet formation models.

Abstract

We present the first multi-wavelength, high-contrast imaging study confirming the protoplanet embedded in the disk around the Herbig Ae/Be star HD100546. The object is detected at $L'$ ($\sim 3.8\,\mu m$) and $M'$ ($\sim 4.8\,\mu m$), but not at $K_s$ ($\sim 2.1\,\mu m$), and the emission consists of a point source component surrounded by spatially resolved emission. For the point source component we derive apparent magnitudes of $L'=13.92\pm0.10$ mag, $M'=13.33\pm0.16$ mag, and $K_s>15.43\pm0.11$ mag (3$\sigma$ limit), and a separation and position angle of $(0.457\pm0.014)"$ and $(8.4\pm1.4)^\circ$, and $(0.472\pm0.014)"$ and $(9.2\pm1.4)^\circ$ in $L'$ and $M'$, respectively. We demonstrate that the object is co-moving with HD100546 and can reject any (sub-)stellar fore-/background object. Fitting a single temperature blackbody to the observed fluxes of the point source component yields an effective temperature of $T_{eff}=932^{+193}_{-202}$ K and a radius for the emitting area of $R=6.9^{+2.7}_{-2.9}$ R$_{\rm Jupiter}$. The best-fit luminosity is $L=(2.3^{+0.6}_{-0.4})\cdot 10^{-4}\,L_{\rm Sun}$. We quantitatively compare our findings with predictions from evolutionary and atmospheric models for young, gas giant planets, discuss the possible existence of a warm, circumplanetary disk, and note that the de-projected physical separation from the host star of $(53\pm2)$ au poses a challenge standard planet formation theories. Considering the suspected existence of an additional planet orbiting at $\sim$13--14 au, HD100546 appears to be an unprecedented laboratory to study the formation of multiple gas giant planets empirically.