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Full list of authors: Hinkley, Sasha; Carter, Aarynn L.; Ray, Shrishmoy; Skemer, Andrew; Biller, Beth; Choquet, Elodie; Millar-Blanchaer, Maxwell A.; Sallum, Stephanie; Miles, Brittany; Whiteford, Niall; Patapis, Polychronis; Perrin, Marshall; Pueyo, Laurent; Schneider, Glenn; Stapelfeldt, Karl; Wang, Jason; Ward-Duong, Kimberly; Bowler, Brendan P.; Boccaletti, Anthony; Girard, Julien H.; Hines, Dean; Kalas, Paul; Kammerer, Jens; Kervella, Pierre; Leisenring, Jarron; Pantin, Eric; Zhou, Yifan; Meyer, Michael; Liu, Michael C.; Bonnefoy, Mickael; Currie, Thayne; McElwain, Michael; Metchev, Stanimir; Wyatt, Mark; Absil, Olivier; Adams, Jea; Barman, Travis; Baraffe, Isabelle; Bonavita, Mariangela; Booth, Mark; Bryan, Marta; Chauvin, Gael; Chen, Christine; Danielski, Camilla; De Furio, Matthew; Factor, Samuel M.; Fitzgerald, Michael P.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Grady, Carol; Greenbaum, Alexandra; Henning, Thomas; Hoch, Kielan K. W.; Janson, Markus; Kennedy, Grant; Kenworthy, Matthew; Kraus, Adam; Kuzuhara, Masayuki; Lagage, Pierre-Olivier; Lagrange, Anne-Marie; Launhardt, Ralf; Lazzoni, Cecilia; Lloyd, James; Marino, Sebastian; Marley, Mark; Martinez, Raquel; Marois, Christian; Matthews, Brenda; Matthews, Elisabeth C.; Mawet, Dimitri; Mazoyer, Johan; Phillips, Mark; Petrus, Simon; Quanz, Sascha P.; Quirrenbach, Andreas; Rameau, Julien; Rebollido, Isabel; Rickman, Emily; Samland, Matthias; Sargent, B.; Schlieder, Joshua E.; Sivaramakrishnan, Anand; Stone, Jordan M.; Tamura, Motohide; Tremblin, Pascal; Uyama, Taichi; Vasist, Malavika; Vigan, Arthur; Wagner, Kevin; Ygouf, Marie.--This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., The direct characterization of exoplanetary systems with high-contrast imaging is among the highest priorities for the broader exoplanet community. As large space missions will be necessary for detecting and characterizing exo-Earth twins, developing the techniques and technology for direct imaging of exoplanets is a driving focus for the community. For the first time, JWST will directly observe extrasolar planets at mid-infrared wavelengths beyond 5 μm, deliver detailed spectroscopy revealing much more precise chemical abundances and atmospheric conditions, and provide sensitivity to analogs of our solar system ice-giant planets at wide orbital separations, an entirely new class of exoplanet. However, in order to maximize the scientific output over the lifetime of the mission, an exquisite understanding of the instrumental performance of JWST is needed as early in the mission as possible. In this paper, we describe our 55 hr Early Release Science Program that will utilize all four JWST instruments to extend the characterization of planetary-mass companions to ∼15 μm as well as image a circumstellar disk in the mid-infrared with unprecedented sensitivity. Our program will also assess the performance of the observatory in the key modes expected to be commonly used for exoplanet direct imaging and spectroscopy, optimize data calibration and processing, and generate representative data sets that will enable a broad user base to effectively plan for general observing programs in future Cycles. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). All rights reserved., This project was supported by a grant from STScI (JWST-ERS-01386) under NASA contract NAS5-03127. M.T.is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No.18H05442. M.B. acknowledges support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through grant Kr 2164/13–2. K.W. acknowledges support from NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF2-51472.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555., With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709.

We observed the nearly edge-on debris disk system HD 111520 at $J$, $H$, & $K1$ near infrared (NIR) bands using both the spectral and polarization modes of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). With these new observations, we have performed an empirical analysis in order to better understand the disk morphology and its highly asymmetrical nature. We find that the disk features a large brightness and radial asymmetry, most prominent at shorter wavelengths. We also find that the radial location of the peak polarized intensity differs on either side of the star by 11 AU, suggesting that the disk may be eccentric, although, such an eccentricity does not fully explain the large brightness and radial asymmetry observed. Observations of the disk halo with HST also show the disk to be warped at larger separations, with a bifurcation feature in the northwest, further suggesting that there may be a planet in this system creating an asymmetrical disk structure. Measuring the disk color shows that the brighter extension is bluer compared to the dimmer extension, suggesting that the two sides have different dust grain properties. This finding, along with the large brightness asymmetry, are consistent with the hypothesis that a giant impact occurred between two large bodies in the northern extension of the disk, although confirming this based on NIR observations alone is not feasible. Follow-up imaging with ALMA to resolve the asymmetry in the dust mass distribution is essential in order to confirm this scenario., 15 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

The Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor (LUVOIR) is a concept for a guest observer-driven observatory that will revolutionize astrophysics, solar system studies, and exoplanet science. This WP summarizes parts of the study Final Report, including science goals, concept designs, key technology needs, development schedule, and project management.

We analyze a sample of 12 HST-selected edge-on protoplanetary disks for which the vertical extent of the emission layers can be constrained directly. We present ALMA high angular resolution continuum images (0.1arcsec) of these disks at two wavelengths, 0.89mm and 2.06mm (respectively ALMA bands 7 and 4), supplemented with archival band 6 data (1.33mm) where available. For most sources, the millimeter continuum emission is more compact than the scattered light, both in the vertical and radial directions. Six sources are resolved along their minor axis in at least one millimeter band, providing direct information on the vertical distribution of the millimeter grains. For the second largest disk of the sample, the significant difference in vertical extent between band 7 and band 4 suggests efficient size-selective vertical settling of large grains. Furthermore, the only Class I object in our sample shows evidence of flaring in the millimeter. Along the major axis, all disks are well resolved. Four of them are larger in band 7 than in band 4 in the radial direction, and three have a similar radial extent in all bands. For all disks, we also derive the millimeter brightness temperature and spectral index maps. We find that the disks are likely optically thick and that the dust emission reveals low brightness temperatures in most cases (, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Updates: Few typos in the text + Table A.1

We present new observations of the edge-on debris disk around HD 15115 (F star at 48.2 pc) obtained in the near-IR. We search for observational evidence for a second inner planetesimal ring in the system. We obtained total intensity and polarimetric data in the broad bands J and H and processed the data with differential imaging techniques achieving an angular resolution of about 40 mas. We observe an axisymmetric planetesimal belt with a radius of $\sim$2$''$, an inclination of $85.8^{\circ} \pm 0.7^{\circ}$ and position angle of 278.9$^{\circ} \pm 0.1^{\circ}$. A grid of models describing the spatial distribution of the grains in the disk is generated to constrain the geometric parameters of the disk and to explore the presence of a second belt. We perform a photometric analysis of the data and compare disk brightness in two bands in scattered and in polarized light. The analysis shows that the west side is $\sim$2.5 times brighter in total intensity than the east side in both bands, while for polarized light in the J band this ratio is only 1.25. The maximum polarization fraction is 15--20% at $r\sim$2.5$''$. We also find that the J - H color of the disk appears to be red for the radial separations $r\lesssim2''$ and is getting bluer for the larger separations. This apparent change of disk color from red to blue with an increasing radial separation could be explained by the decreasing average grain size with distance. The presence of an additional inner belt slightly inclined with respect to the main planetesimal belt is suspected from the polarized intensity image but the analysis and modeling presented here cannot establish a firm conclusion due to the faintness of the disk and its high inclination., 23 pages, 21 figures typos corrected

Using 22 μm data from the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), we have completed a sensitive all-sky survey for debris disks in Hipparcos and Tycho catalog stars within 120 pc. This warm excess emission traces material in the circumstellar region likely to host terrestrial planets. Several hundred previously unknown debris disk candidates were identified. We are currently performing follow-up observations to characterize the stars, companions, and circumstellar material in these systems with a variety of facilities including Keck, Herschel, and HST. Thirteen WISE debris disks have been observed to date using HST/STIS coronagraphy. Five of these disks have been detected in scattered light. One is a large and highly asymmetric edge-on disk which appears to be both warped and bifurcated.

The Habitable-Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) is a candidate flagship mission being studied by NASA and the astrophysics community in preparation of the 2020 Decadal Survey. The first HabEx mission concept that has been studied is a large (~4m) diffraction-limited optical space telescope, providing unprecedented resolution and contrast in the optical, with extensions into the near ulttraviolet and near infrared domains. We report here on our team’s efforts in defining a scientifically compelling HabEx mission that is technologically executable, affordable within NASA’s expected budgetary envelope, and timely for the next decade. We also briefly discuss our plans to explore less ambitious, descoped missions relative to the primary mission architecture discussed here.

We present new high spatial resolution (, Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, editorially accepted for publication in ApJ

We present a panchromatic study, involving a multiple technique approach, of the circumstellar disc surrounding the T Tauri star IM Lupi (Sz 82). We have undertaken a comprehensive observational study of IM Lupi using photometry, spectroscopy, millimetre interferometry and multi-wavelength imaging. For the first time, the disc is resolved from optical and near-infrared wavelengths in scattered light, to the millimetre regime in thermal emission. Our data-set, in conjunction with existing photometric data, provides an extensive coverage of the spectral energy distribution, including a detailed spectrum of the silicate emission bands. We have performed a simultaneous modelling of the various observations, using the radiative transfer code MCFOST, and analysed a grid of models over a large fraction of the parameter space via Bayesian inference. We have constructed a model that can reproduce all of the observations of the disc. Our analysis illustrates the importance of combining a wide range of observations in order to fully constrain the disc model, with each observation providing a strong constraint only on some aspects of the disc structure and dust content. Quantitative evidence of dust evolution in the disc is obtained: grain growth up to millimetre-sized particles, vertical stratification of dust grains with micrometric grains close to the disc surface and larger grains which have settled towards the disc midplane, and possibly the formation of fluffy aggregates and/or ice mantles around grains., 20 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

As the number of detected extrasolar planetary systems has steadily grown over the past five years, so too has the number of circumstellar disks with resolved images. In this contribution, I take stock of the current inventory of disk images at various wavelengths; summarize the results of a new disk imaging survey conducted with the Hubble Space Telescope; review the major inferences that can be drawn about disk structure from the extant images; and suggest areas for future progress.

As the number of detected extrasolar planetary systems has steadily grown over the past five years, so too has the number of circumstellar disks with resolved images. In this contribution, we take stock of the current inventory of disk images in the optical and infrared; summarize the results of a new disk imaging survey conducted with the Hubble Space Telescope; review the major inferences that can be drawn about disk structure from the extant images; and suggest areas for future progress.

Ambitious infrared and astrometric space observatories are planned by both NASA and ESA for the first decade of the new millenium. I present a brief overview of their capabilities and suggest some of their likely contributions to research on young binary stars.

We report on Hubble Space Telescope imaging of eleven young stellar objects in the nearby Taurus molecular clouds. The high spatial resolution and stable point spread function of HST reveal important new details of the circumstellar nebulosity of these objects. Three sources (HH 30, FS Tau B, and DG Tau B) are resolved as compact bipolar nebulae without a directly visible star. In all three cases, jet widths near the sources are found to be 50 AU or less. Flattened disk structures are seen in absorption in HH 30 and FS Tau B, and in reflection about GM Aur. Extended envelope structures traced by scattered light are present in HL Tau, T Tau, DG Tau, and FS Tau. The jet in DG Tau exhibits a large opening angle and is already resolved into a bow-like structure less than 3″ from the star.

Hubble Space Telescope imaging of HH 30 has revealed this object to be a prototype young stellar object (YSO) accretion disk system. An optically thick circumstellar absorption disk, 450 AU in diameter, is seen extending perpendicular to highly collimated bipolar jets. The jet width is resolved in the transverse direction and increases with distance from the central star. The size and age of the disk compare well to the early solar nebula during planet formation. HH 30 is the first YSO disk ever observed at 14 AU resolution, and the first viewed close enough to edge-on that the vertical structure of the disk is clearly visible. These HST images of HH 30 offer the first-ever opportunity to directly measure the flaring profile of an astrophysical accretion disk. We have compared the images to model nebulosities calculated in both multiple and single scattering regimes, in the latter case via chi-squared minimization. This analysis constrains the circumstellar density distribution and grain scattering properties. A brief summary of the results is presented here; full details and references appear in Burrows et al., Ap.J. (1996).

Zodiac II is a proposed balloon-borne science investigation of debris disks around nearby stars. Debris disks are analogs of the Asteroid Belt (mainly rocky) and Kuiper Belt (mainly icy) in our Solar System. Zodiac II will measure the size, shape, brightness, and color of a statistically significant sample of disks. These measurements will enable us to probe these fundamental questions: what do debris disks tell us about the evolution of planetary systems; how are debris disks produced; how are debris disks shaped by planets; what materials are debris disks made of; how much dust do debris disks make as they grind down; and how long do debris disks live? In addition, Zodiac II will observe hot, young exoplanets as targets of opportunity. The Zodiac II instrument is a 1.1-m diameter SiC telescope and an imaging coronagraph on a gondola carried by a stratospheric balloon. Its data product is a set of images of each targeted debris disk in four broad visiblewavelength bands. Zodiac II will address its science questions by taking high-resolution, multi-wavelength images of the debris disks around tens of nearby stars. Mid-latitude flights are considered: overnight test flights within the United States followed by half-global flights in the Southern Hemisphere. These longer flights are required to fully explore the set of known debris disks accessible only to Zodiac II. On these targets, it will be 100 times more sensitive than the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS); no existing telescope can match the Zodiac II contrast and resolution performance. A second objective of Zodiac II is to use the near-space environment to raise the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of SiC mirrors, internal coronagraphs, deformable mirrors, and wavefront sensing and control, all potentially needed for a future space-based telescope for high-contrast exoplanet imaging.

We are undertaking a multi-frequency Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) survey of edge-on protoplanetary disks to probe the growth of solids in each disk, sedimentation of such material into the disk midplane, and the connection of these phenomena to the planet formation process. The projection of edge-on disk systems along our line of sight enables a study of the vertical stratification of large grains with fewer model dependencies than would be required for disks that are more face-on. Robust studies of the spatial distribution of grains up to ~1 cm in size are possible with the wavelength range and sensitivity of the EVLA. In this contribution we describe target selection and observational strategies. First results concerning the Class 0 source IRAS04368+2557 (L1527 IRS) are presented, including a study of this source's 8.46 GHz continuum variability over short and long time baselines and an indication that its protoplanetary disk may have a dearth of pebble-sized grains., 17 pages, 2 tables, 3 figures. Accepted for ApJ Letters EVLA special issue. Updated affiliations

Circumstellar discs are expected to be the nursery of planets. Grain growth within such discs is the first step in the planet formation process. The Bok globule CB 26 harbours such a young disc. We present a detailed model of the edge-on circumstellar disc and its envelope in the Bok globule CB 26. The model is based on HST near-infrared maps in the I, J, H, and K bands, OVRO and SMA radio maps at 1.1mm, 1.3mm and 2.7mm, and the spectral energy distribution (SED) from 0.9 microns to 3mm. New photometric and spectroscopic data from the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Caltech Submilimeter Observatory have been obtained and are part of our analysis. Using the self-consistent radiative transfer code MC3D, the model we construct is able to discriminate parameter sets and dust properties of both its parts, namely envelope and disc. We find that the disc has an inner hole with a radius of 45 +/- 5 AU. Based on a dust model including silicate and graphite the maximum grain size needed to reproduce the spectral millimetre index is 2.5 microns. Features seen in the near-infrared images, dominated by scattered light, can be described as a result of a rotating envelope. Successful employment of ISM dust in both the disc and envelope hint that grain growth may not yet play a significant role for the appearance of this system. A larger inner hole gives rise to the assumption that CB 26 is a circumbinary disc., 18 pages, 15 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

We present the discovery of 130.87 day periodic near-infrared flux variability for the Class II T Tauri star WL 4 (= 2MASS J16271848-2429059, ISO-Oph 128). Our data are from the 2MASS Calibration Point Source Working Database, and constitute 1580 observations in J, H and K_s of a field in ρ Ophiuchus used to calibrate the 2MASS All-Sky Survey. We identify a light curve for WL 4 with eclipse amplitudes of ~0.4 mag lasting more than one-quarter the period, and color variations in J-H and H-K_s, of ~0.1 mag. The long period cannot be explained by stellar rotation. We propose that WL 4 is a triple YSO system, with an inner binary orbital period of 130.87 days. We posulate that we are observing each component of the inner binary alternately being eclipsed by a circum-binary disk with respect to our line of sight. This system will be useful in investigating terrestrial zone YSO disk properties and dynamics at ~1 Myr.

We present a color-magnitude diagram of more than 10,000 stars in the halo of the galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A), based on WFPC2 images through V-band and I-band filters. The position of the red giant branch (RGB) stars is compared with the loci of the red giant branch in six well-studied globular clusters and in the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 185; the tip of the RGB is signalled by an observed turn-up in the luminosity function at I≃24.1 ± 0.1 mag; this yields a distance modulus (m - M)_0 = 27.8 ± 0.2 for NGC 5128 (i.e., a distance of 3.6 ± 0.2 Mpc), in agreement with previous determinations based on the planetary nebulae luminosity function and on the surface brightness fluctuations technique. The presence of an intermediate-age stellar population (~5 Gyr) is suggested by the luminosity function of the asymptotic giant branch stars, extending up to I= 22.6 mag (for V - I > 2) and M_(bot) ~ -5 mag; however, the number of these stars constrains the intermediate-age stellar population in the halo of NGC 5128 to be less than ~ 10% of the total. The color distribution at constant I magnitude, albeit affected by the completeness level of our sample, strongly suggests a mean value of [Fe/H] > -0.9 dex, possibly similar to the value found in M31 and higher than that observed in NGC 185. Like the M31 halo, the halo of NGC 5128 exhibits a broad range of levels of chemical enrichment.

The proposed Eclipse Discovery mission is an optical space telescope designed to provide a thousandfold reduction in scattered light near bright stars in comparison to any Hubble Space Telescope instrument. A survey of 500 single stars within 15 pc can detect companions with absolute z magnitude of 22 at separations > 10 AU in most of the targets. Spectrophotometry of CH4 and H2O bands between 0.8-1.0 μm can be used to derive the effective temperatures of the objects. The ECLIPSE brown dwarf survey would directly measure the luminosity function of brown dwarf companions down to ~20 Jupiter masses, providing a crucial comparison with field objects.

We present observations of ~7 square degrees of the North American and Pelican Nebulae region at 24, 70, and 160 microns with the Spitzer Space Telescope Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS). We incorporate the MIPS observations with earlier Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) observations, as well as archival near-infrared (IR) and optical data. We use the MIPS data to identify 1286 young stellar object (YSO) candidates. IRAC data alone can identify 806 more YSO candidates, for a total of 2076 YSO candidates. Prior to the Spitzer observations, there were only ~200 YSOs known in this region. Three subregions within the complex are highlighted as clusters: the Gulf of Mexico, the Pelican, and the Pelican's Hat. The Gulf of Mexico cluster is subject to the highest extinction (Av at least ~30) and has the widest range of infrared colors of the three clusters, including the largest excesses and by far the most point-source detections at 70 microns. Just 3% of the cluster members were previously identified; we have redefined this cluster as about 10-100 times larger (in projected area) than was previously realized., Accepted to ApJS. Full data tables available at http://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/rebull/research.html

Recently obtained Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images of the Crab Nebula show that the emission-line filaments are dominated by structures that morphologically appear to be the result of magnetic Rayleigh Taylor (R-T) instabilities at the interface between the pulsar-driven synchrotron nebula and a shell of swept up ejecta. We replace this morphological argument with a quantitative treatment of the growth rate and characteristic wavelength of such instabilities. Using published data on the rate of expansion of the synchrotron nebula and the density of the ejecta, together with a wavelength for the instability measured from the WFPC2 images, we calculate a magnetic field strength of ~540 µG. This is within a factor of 2 of the canonical minimum energy equipartition field of 300 µG, and probably closer than that to a more realistic estimate of the field at the edge of the Crab. Comparison of the detailed morphology and ionization structure of the R-T fingers in the Crab with recent magnetohydrodynamical simulations which follow the development of magnetic R-T instabilities into the nonlinear regime is used to establish a sequence of filament properties which are determined by the density of the shell of swept-up ejecta at the edge of the synchrotron nebula. When the density is below a critical value, the interface is stable. For somewhat higher densities R-T instabilities grow, but the field, which becomes aligned along the length of the R-T fingers, is strong enough to prevent the development of secondary Kelvin Helmholtz (K-H) instabilities as the finger falls through the lighter medium. At higher densities these K-H instabilities develop, but the field is still strong enough to maintain a long streamer-like connection between the head of the filament and the shell. In a few cases, the density of the shell is high enough that the magnetic field is unable to prevent the fragmentation of R-T fingers, and the structure becomes more characteristic of a nonmagnetic R-T instability. The magnetic field is oriented along the length of an R-T finger, so material is free to "pour" into the finger from above. In equilibrium, gradients in thermal pressure and effective gravity must balance along field lines. As a result, loss of pressure support in the fingers due to cooling enhances the flow of material into the fingers, "siphoning" gas into the finger from above. If an extended remnant of ejecta surrounds the visible extent of the Crab, as has been suggested frequently, then the synchrotron nebula is expanding through this extended remnant, sweeping up ejecta as it goes. R-T instabilities channel this swept-up ejecta into the hierarchy of dense visible filaments. It seems likely that the current system of filaments originated as a result of R-T instabilities as the synchrotron nebula expanded out through more uniformly distributed ejecta. If an extended remnant remains today, then filament formation is an ongoing process. The ionization structure of filaments is also found to change in a systematic way as a function of the relative importance of the magnetic field and the mass density. Filaments which are dominated by the magnetic field are confined by the field and have sharp, well defined edges. Filaments in which the magnetic field is less dominant consist of high-density, low-ionization cores embedded within more extended high-ionization material. This confirms a previous suggestion that variations in magnetic confinement are an important caveat to published interpretations of spectra of Crab filaments.