Article: Kalas, PG; Rajan, A; Wang, JJ; Millar-Blanchaer, MA; Duchene, G; Chen, C; Fitzgerald, MP; Dong, RB; Graham, JR; Patience, J; Macintosh, B; Murray-Clay, R; Matthews, B; Rameau, J; Marois, C; Chilcote, J; De Rosa, RJ; Doyon, R; Draper, ZH; Lawler, S; Ammons, SM; Arriaga, P; Bulger, J; Cotten, T; Follette, KB; Goodsell, S; Greenbaum, A; Hibon, P; Hinkley, S; Hung, LW; Ingraham, P; Konapacky, Q; Lafreniere, D; Larkin, JE; Long, D; Maire, J; Marchis, F; Metchev, S; Morzinski, KM; Nielsen, EL; Oppenheimer, R; Perrin, MD; Pueyo, L; Rantakyro, FT; Ruffio, JB; Saddlemyer, L; Savransky, D; Schneider, AC; Sivaramakrishnan, A; Soummer, R; Song, I; Thomas, S; Vasisht, G; Ward-Duong, K; Wiktorowicz, SJ; Wolff, SG; (2015) “Direct Imaging of an Asymmetric Debris Disk in the HD 106906 Planetary System”, Astrophysical Journal, 814 (1)
Abstract: We present the first scattered light detections of the HD 106906 debris disk using the Gemini/Gemini Planet Imager in the infrared and Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Advanced Camera for Surveys in the optical. HD 106906 is a 13 Myr old F5V star in the Sco-Cen association, with a previously detected planet-mass candidate HD 106906b projected 650 AU from the host star. Our observations reveal a near edge-on debris disk that has a central cleared region with radius similar to 50 AU, and an outer extent >500 AU. The HST data show that the outer regions are highly asymmetric, resembling the “needle” morphology seen for the HD 15115 debris disk. The planet candidate is oriented similar to 21 degrees away from the position angle of the primary’s debris disk, strongly suggesting non-coplanarity with the system. We hypothesize that HD 106906b could be dynamically involved in the perturbation of the primary’s disk, and investigate whether or not there is evidence for a circumplanetary dust disk or cloud that is either primordial or captured from the primary We show that both the existing optical properties and near-infrared colors of HD 106906b are weakly consistent with this possibility, motivating future work to test for the observational signatures of dust surrounding the planet.
Funding Acknowledgement: NASA [NNX15AD95G, NNX14AJ80G, NNX11AD21G]; NSF [AST-0909188, AST-1411868, AST-1413718]; University of California [LFRP-118057]; NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
Funding Text: The Gemini Observatory is operated by the AURA under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia e Inovacao (Brazil), and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion Productiva (Argentina). This research was supported in part by NASA cooperative agreements NNX15AD95G, NNX14AJ80G, and NNX11AD21G, NSF AST-0909188, AST-1411868, and AST-1413718, and the University of California LFRP-118057. This work benefited from NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) research coordination network sponsored by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. We thank an anonymous referee for comments that improved our manuscript.