Speckle Imaging Excludes Low-Mass Companions Orbiting the Exoplanet Host Star TRAPPIST-1

We have obtained the highest resolution images available of TRAPPIST-1 using the Gemini-South telescope and our speckle imaging camera. Observing at 692 and 883 nm, we reached the diffraction limit of the telescope providing a best resolution of 27 mas or, at the distance of TRAPPIST-1, a spatial re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2016-09
Main Authors: Howell, Steve B, Everett, Mark E, Horch, Elliott P, Winters, Jennifer G, Hirsch, Lea, Nusdeo, Dan, Scott, Nicholas J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Confidence intervals
Extrasolar planets
Imaging
Planetary orbits
Spatial resolution
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We have obtained the highest resolution images available of TRAPPIST-1 using the Gemini-South telescope and our speckle imaging camera. Observing at 692 and 883 nm, we reached the diffraction limit of the telescope providing a best resolution of 27 mas or, at the distance of TRAPPIST-1, a spatial resolution of 0.32 AU. Our imaging of the star extends from 0.32 to 14.5 AU. We show that to a high confidence level, we can exclude all possible stellar and brown dwarf companions, indicating that TRAPPIST-1 is a single star.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1610.05269