Architecture of Selected Planetary Systems: III. Direct Imaging Search for Outer Planets

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ralph Neuhäuser
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 168925145

Hundreds of extra-solar planets have been found around other stars. Many are systems with several planets orbiting a single star, partly with outer and/or inner debris disks. These planetary systems exhibit a large variety, and their organization can differ much for the solar system architecture. Planetary systems are found around single, binary, and triple stars; some include planets in resonant orbits, planets at very small (below one AU, detected by radial velocity and/or transit) and very large (tens to more than 100 AU, detected by direct imaging) separation from the host star. Here, we propose to search of outer planets in a sample of stars by direct imaging with Adaptive Optics. The sample includes selected stars with debris disks, in some of which one or more inner planets are already known. In a parallel project, systems will be searched for inner planets. Another accompanying project will provide a theoretical analysis of the complete planetary systems. Thus the entire Packet Proposal aims to study the architecture of full planetary systems by both observations and theory.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants