James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

Imaging detection of the inner dust belt and the four exoplanets in the HR8799 system with JWST's MIRI coronagraph

Raw coronagraphic (top, detector orientation), and reference star subtracted (bottom, North is up, East is left) images in the four filters (left to right: F1065C, F1140C, F1550C, F2100W). The four planets are labelled b, c, d, and e in panel 1), as well as the background object in panels 3) and 7). The signature of the inner disk is circled with a dotted line in panels 3) and 4). The 50 au scale stands for the projected physical distance. The Field of View is 12 × 12”. Intensity scale is adapted in each panel for visualisation purpose. Abstract: The multi planet system HR8799 is the first target observed with MIRI's coronagraphs as part of the MIRI-EC Guaranteed Time Observations exoplanets programme in Nov. 2022. We obtained deep observations in three coronagraphic filters from 10 to 15mic (F1065C, F1140C, F1550C), and one standard imaging filter at 20 mic (F2100W), with the goal to extract the photometry of the four planets, as well as to detect and investigate the distribution of circumstellar dust. Using dedicated observations of a reference star, we tested several algorithms to subtract the stellar diffraction pattern while preserving the fluxes of planets, which can be significantly affected by over-subtraction. Measuring correctly the planet's flux values requires accounting for the attenuation by the coronagraphs as a function of their position, and to estimate the normalisation with respect to the central star. We tested several procedures to derive averaged photometric values and error bars. These observations have enabled us to obtain two main results. First of all, the four planets in the system are well recovered, and their mid-IR fluxes, combined with near-IR flux values from the literature, are compared to two exoplanet atmosphere models, ATMO and Exo-REM. As a main outcome, the MIRI photometric data points imply larger radii (0.86 or 1.07 RJ for planet b) and cooler temperatures (950 or 1100 K for planet b), especially for planet b, in better agreement with evolutionary models. Second of all, these JWST/MIRI coronagraphic data also deliver the first spatially resolved detection of the inner warm debris disk, the radius of which is constrained to about 15 au, with flux densities comparable, but lower than former unresolved spectroscopic measurements with Spitzer.