The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems I: High-contrast Imaging of the Exoplanet HIP 65426 b from 2 to 16 μm
Aarynn L. Carter, Sasha Hinkley, Jens Kammerer, Andrew Skemer, Beth Biller, Jarron Leisenring, Maxwell A. Millar‐Blanchaer, Simon Petrus, Jordan Stone, Kimberly Ward-Duong, Jason Wang, J. H. Girard, Dean C. Hines, Marshall D. Perrin, Laurent Pueyo, William O. Balmer, M. Bonavita, M. Bonnefoy, G. Chauvin, Élodie Choquet, Valentin Christiaens, Camilla Danielski, Grant M. Kennedy, Elisabeth C. Matthews, Brittany Miles, Polychronis Patapis, Shrishmoy Ray, Emily Rickman, Steph Sallum, Karl R. Stapelfeldt, Niall Whiteford, Yifan Zhou, Olivier Absil, A. Boccaletti, Mark Booth, Brendan P. Bowler, Christine Chen, Thayne Currie, Jonathan J. Fortney, C. A. Grady, Alexandra Z. Greebaum, Thomas Henning, Kielan K. W. Hoch, M. Janson, Paul Kalas, Matthew A. Kenworthy, P. Kervella, Adam L. Kraus, Pierre-Olivier Lagage, Michael C. Liu, Bruce Macintosh, Sebastián Marino, Mark S. Marley, Christian Marois, Brenda C. Matthews, Dimitri Mawet, Michael W. McElwain, Stanimir Metchev, Michael R. Meyer, P. Mollière, Sarah E. Moran, Caroline Morley, Sagnick Mukherjee, E. Pantin, A. Quirrenbach, Isabel Rebollido, Bin Ren, Glenn Schneider, Malavika Vasist, Kadin Worthen, M. C. Wyatt, Zackery Briesemeister, Marta L. Bryan, Per Calissendorff, F. Cantalloube, Gabriele Cugno, Matthew De Furio, Trent J. Dupuy, Samuel M. Factor, Jacqueline K. Faherty, Michael P. Fitzgerald, Kyle Franson, Eileen C. Gonzales, Callie E. Hood, Alex R. Howe, Masayuki Kuzuhara, A.‐M. Lagrange, Kellen Lawson, C. Lazzoni, Ben W. P. Lew, Pengyu Liu, Jorge Llop-Sayson, James P. Lloyd, Raquel A. Martinez, Johan Mazoyer, P. Palma-Bifani, Sascha P. Quanz, Jéa Adams Redai, M. Samland, Joshua E. Schlieder
Abstract
Abstract We present JWST Early Release Science coronagraphic observations of the super-Jupiter exoplanet, HIP 65426b, with the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) from 2 to 5 μ m, and with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) from 11 to 16 μ m. At a separation of ∼0.″82 (87 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>31</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>108</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> au), HIP 65426b is clearly detected in all seven of our observational filters, representing the first images of an exoplanet to be obtained by JWST, and the first-ever direct detection of an exoplanet beyond 5 μ m. These observations demonstrate that JWST is exceeding its nominal predicted performance by up to a factor of 10, depending on separation and subtraction method, with measured 5 σ contrast limits of ∼1 × 10 −5 and ∼2 × 10 −4 at 1″ for NIRCam at 4.4 μ m and MIRI at 11.3 μ m, respectively. These contrast limits provide sensitivity to sub-Jupiter companions with masses as low as 0.3 M Jup beyond separations of ∼100 au. Together with existing ground-based near-infrared data, the JWST photometry are fit well by a BT-SETTL atmospheric model from 1 to 16 μ m, and they span ∼97% of HIP 65426b's luminous range. Independent of the choice of model atmosphere, we measure an empirical bolometric luminosity that is tightly constrained between <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>log</mml:mi> <mml:mfenced close=")" open="("> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>L</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>bol</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="true">/</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>L</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⊙</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:mfenced> </mml:math> = −4.31 and −4.14, which in turn provides a robust mass constraint of 7.1 ± 1.2 M Jup . In totality, these observations confirm that JWST presents a powerful and exciting opportunity to characterize the population of exoplanets amenable to high-contrast imaging in greater detail.