2004/12/31 by John H. Debes, J. H. Debes, Steinn Sigurdsson +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Brown dwarf #Exoplanet #Hubble space telescope #Orbit (dynamics) #Photometry (optics) #Planet #Planetary mass #Planetary system #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #White dwarf #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/491640
published as Astrophys.J. 633 (2005) 1168-1174 · 20 pages, 4 figures, Accepted to ApJ
arxiv created 2005/09/28 · openalex publication_date 2005/11/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present high-contrast images of the hydrogen white dwarf G29-38 taken in the near-infrared with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini North Telescope as part of a high-contrast imaging search for substellar objects in orbit around nearby white dwarfs. We review the current limits on planetary companions for G29-38, the only nearby white dwarf with an infrared excess due to a dust disk. We add our recent observations to these limits to produce extremely tight constraints on the types of possible companions that could be present. No objects >6 M J are detected in our data at projected separations >12 AU, and no objects >16 M J are detected for separations from 3 to 12 AU, assuming a total system age of 1 Gyr. Limits for companions at separations <3 AU come from a combination of Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) photometry and previous studies of G29-38's pulsations. Our imaging with Gemini cannot confirm a tentative claim for the presence of a low-mass brown dwarf. These observations demonstrate that a careful combination of several techniques can probe nearby white dwarfs for large planets and low-mass brown dwarfs.