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Physics Astrophysics Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

astro-ph.EP Watch Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Tuesday 11 August

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Intense but Harmless: Exo-Space Weather Around an M Dwarf with a Single-Hemisphere Dynamo

Zheng Sun, Julián D. Alvarado-Gómez, Hui Tian et al. (+4 more)

M dwarfs are among the most promising host stars in the search for habitable exoplanets. However, their active atmospheres drive intense magnetic activity, including energetic flares and possibly coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which may pose serious threats to planetary habitability. In this study, we perform three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of CMEs on a fully convective M dwarf with a rotation period of 30 days, corresponding to the moderate-rotation regime. The magnetic topology driving our simulations is adopted from an exploratory global dynamo simulation of a fully convective low-mass star exhibiting a single-hemisphere magnetic configuration, which is not yet observationally confirmed. The large-scale magnetic field is mostly restricted to a single hemisphere and characterized by high-latitude polarity inversion lines (PILs), with the implication that most CMEs should originate from high latitudes. We find that these high-latitude CMEs propagate radially and away from the equatorial plane, producing only weak and spatially limited disturbances along the equatorial orbits of exoplanets. Moreover, low-latitude CMEs experience stronger drag within the dense and slow stellar wind near the equator, which significantly reduces both their propagation speeds and their overall impact on exoplanets. The resulting dynamic pressure enhancements on equatorial exoplanets caused by these CMEs are within two orders of magnitude above the quiescent conditions, much lower than those reported in previous M-dwarf CME simulations. These results indicate that, if such magnetic topologies indeed exist on M dwarfs, they may produce a relatively benign CME environment, which could be favorable for planetary habitability at face value.
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All authors Zheng Sun, Julián D. Alvarado-Gómez, Hui Tian, Ofer Cohen, Jeremy J. Drake, Katja Poppenhäger, Yue-Hong Chen

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Opposition effect of comet 28P/Neujmin observed with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam

Takafumi Ootsubo, Hideyo Kawakita, Tadafumi Takata et al. (+8 more)

We present an observational study of the nucleus of comet 28P/Neujmin at a heliocentric distance exceeding 10 au, where coma contamination is effectively minimized. Observations were conducted in the $g$, $r$, and $y$ bands with the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) on the 8.2-m Subaru Telescope. The measured colors, $g - r = 0.67\pm0.17$ and $r - y = 0.41\pm0.19$, yield a spectral index of $S' = 8.8\pm4.2\%/100$ nm, comparable to that of D-type asteroids. By incorporating new observational data at a phase angle $\alpha = 0.334^{\circ}$ with previous observations, we determined the phase function for the nucleus of 28P and confirmed an opposition surge at small phase angles. The derived opposition effect amplitude depends on the adopted phase coefficient, which is uncertain due to potential systematic effects in multi-apparition phase curves. Nevertheless, even under conservative assumptions, the opposition effect of 28P suggests a larger coherent backscattering contribution than is typical for C- and D-type asteroids. The Subaru HSC observations suggest that, although the nucleus color resembles that of D-type asteroids, the surface microstructure of comet 28P's nucleus likely differs from those of C- and D-type asteroids. Future single-apparition observations covering a wide phase angle range from near-opposition to larger angles, combined with polarimetric measurements, will be essential to definitively establish the physical mechanisms responsible for the opposition effects of cometary nuclei.
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All authors Takafumi Ootsubo, Hideyo Kawakita, Tadafumi Takata, Junko Furusawa, Hisanori Furusawa, Tsuyoshi Terai, Toshihiro Kasuga, Akira Keida, Yoshiharu Shinnaka, Fumi Yoshida, Seitaro Urakawa

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Bernhard-1: An Eccentric Binary Periodically Obscured by its Misaligned Circumbinary Disk

Zhecheng Hu, Wei Zhu, Ping Chen et al. (+2 more)

Bernhard-1 is a proposed KH 15D-like circumbinary disk occultation (CBO) system, but its binary nature and disk geometry have not previously been confirmed. We present new optical and near-infrared spectroscopy together with multi-band photometric monitoring of the system. The radial velocities confirm that Bernhard-1 hosts a highly eccentric binary with $e = 0.80 \pm 0.09$, confirming that the periodic photometric variability arises from occultation by a misaligned circumbinary disk. Joint modeling of the spectra and phase-dependent spectral energy distributions yields pre-main-sequence components with masses of $\sim 1.1\,M_\odot$ and $\sim 0.8\,M_\odot$. Combining stellar isochrones with the measured lithium abundance yields a system age of $\sim$ 10 Myr. Together with the spatial, astrometric, and metallicity properties of Bernhard-1, this suggests that Bernhard-1 is probably a member of the open cluster Dolidze 42. By combining the RV orbit with a semi-transparent occultation-screen model, we infer a disk–binary mutual inclination of roughly $50^\circ$ or $130^\circ$, with the degeneracy arising from the unknown disk rotation direction. This geometric method can be applied to any CBO system once radial velocity monitoring yields an orbital solution. The new light curves deviate from earlier model predictions, consistent with ongoing disk precession, while the phase-dependent H$\alpha$ profiles indicate pulsed accretion near periastron. Bernhard-1 therefore joins KH 15D and Bernhard-2 as a rare spectroscopically confirmed CBO system.
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All authors Zhecheng Hu, Wei Zhu, Ping Chen, Richard Post, Weicheng Zang

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Toward a unified framework for helium observations and interpretation of atmospheric escape

Carteret Yann and Bourrier Vincent

Atmospheric escape is considered a key process in shaping exoplanet demographics and evolution. The near-infrared metastable helium triplet (HeI at ~10833Å) is one of the most powerful tracers of hydrodynamical outflows. In recent years, a large variety of instruments have been used to detect and characterize expanding upper atmospheres. High-resolution (HR) spectrographs, which can spectrally resolve the lines of the triplet, have been mostly used to probe the dynamics of atmospheric escape. More recently, JWST (low-resolution, LR) detected extended outflows that were missed by previous ground-based observations due to night-length constraints. Since the observed transmission spectrum is computed from the ratio of stellar spectra degraded by instrumental convolution, we demonstrate that directly convolving a theoretical transmission spectrum with the instrument's profile leads to inference biases as resolution decreases. This conclusion is particularly important for atmospheric escape studies but also holds in the more general context of LR atmospheric retrievals. Following the proper comparison methodology, we then investigated the complementarity of HR and LR observations for atmospheric escape measurements, comparing the capability of three instruments (NIRPS, JWST/NIRSpec, and JWST/NIRISS) to detect and characterize outflows. We find that NIRPS and JWST/NIRISS are mostly sensitive to the same helium signatures, while JWST/NIRSpec improves the detection limit of excess absorption for faint targets. Studying different outflow configurations, we show that LR space-based measurements cannot be used to infer the dynamics of the upper atmosphere close to the planet, and are best employed to measure the spatial extent of outflowing tails. We thus highlight the complementarity between HR and LR observations of atmospheric escape, the latter improving baseline reconstruction.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

PDS 70 c and SR 12 c: Observational Constraints on Giant-Planet and Satellite Formation

Ignacio Mosqueira

PDS~70~c and SR~12~c are the only bound planetary-mass objects with secure cold submillimeter disk detections. Together, these systems constrain giant-planet growth and satellite formation. The PDS~70 planets exhibit remarkable parallels to the Jupiter–Saturn pair in our Solar System. Both PDS~70 planets accrete within one shared gap, which links their final masses, the material reaching each Hill sphere, and the properties of the circumplanetary disk. Planetary torques deplete the finite interplanetary reservoir, causing circumplanetary supply to decline as the protoplanets open a circumstellar gap. SR~12~c separates the planetary-growth and satellite-formation timescales: gas and solids survive even though its current mass-growth timescale is $(1.9\pm0.6)\times10^9$~yr. For PDS~70~c, the 855-$\mu$m flux implies $0.007$–$0.031\,\Mearth$ of dust at 26~K in the optically thin limit. A fully dust-dominated, uniform 22–26-K optically thick emitter has an equivalent coplanar radius of $0.58$–$0.66$~au, while a fiducial radial temperature profile yields an equivalent radius of approximately 0.46~au. The continuum constraints overlap the 0.5–1.5~au circularization range estimated by ballistic calculations of late-stage gap-fed inflow. We find that the PDS~70 constraints are consistent with our \SEMM{} satellite-formation model (Mosqueira & Estrada 2003a,b, submitted in 2001). Thus the observations provide strong support for a quiescent, solids-enhanced satellite-forming environment, coupled in the early stages to planetary-gap evolution.
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Monday 10 August

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.IM

The final design of GMagAO-X: high-contrast imaging at first-light of the GMT

Jared R. Males, Laird M. Close, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert et al. (+13 more)

GMagAO-X will be the first-light high-contrast imager on the 25 m Giant Magellan Telescope. The driving science case for GMagAO-X is characterization of the atmospheres of nearby rocky exoplanets such as Proxima Centauri b. The revolutionary increase in spatial resolution and sensitivity provided by GMagAO-X will enable detailed study of such planets for the first time. Additional science cases include: reflected light characterization of mature giant planets; measurement of young extrasolar giant planet variability; characterization of circumstellar disks at unprecedented spatial resolution; characterization of benchmark stellar atmospheres at high spectral resolution; and mapping of resolved objects such as giant stars and asteroids. These, and many more, science cases will be enabled by a 21,000 actuator extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) system, an integrated coronagraphic wavefront control system with dedicated deformable mirrors, and a suite of imagers and spectrographs. Science-driven performance requirements for GMagAO-X include achieving a Strehl ratio of 70% at 800 nm on 8th mag and brighter stars, and exoplanet characterization at planet:star flux-ratios of 1e-7 at 4 lambda/D (26 mas at 800 nm) separation. GMagAO-X has been added to the GMT project baseline plan and is in the final design phase, aiming to complete FDR in March, 2027. The instrument is on track to be ready at first-light of the GMT in the mid 2030s. We provide a brief update of the instrument designed to achieve our ambitious performance targets.
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All authors Jared R. Males, Laird M. Close, Sebastiaan Y. Haffert, Victor Gasho, Adam Fletcher, Joseph Boales, Dhruv Lakhani, Maggie Y. Kautz, Doug Kelly, Olivier Durney, Thomas Salanski, Peter Gray, Cody Nelson, Steven Cornelissen, Paul Bierden, Olivier Guyon

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

A Pre-Main Sequence Binary Viewed Through its Circumbinary Disk: A New Phase for KH 15D

Catrina M. Hamilton, Adi B. Chacko, George A. Carson et al. (+16 more)

The binary T Tauri system, KH 15D, is poised to provide unprecedented detail of gas and ices located between $\sim$3-5 AU of its circumbinary disk over the next few years. We analyze for the first time a complete set of ground-based time series photometry of the KH 15D system for which the 2022 October - 2025 April data have never been presented. By combining the latest $I$-band data with historical measurements, we show that the era of large amplitude photometric variability has ended. We define a revised photometric period of $P$ = 48.365 $\pm$ 0.005 days, which accurately phases data over a time span of seventy-five years. We adopt magnitudes and colors for the stars that define the epochs when either star A (1995-2008) or star B (2010-2012) is the primary source of the out-of-eclipse brightness of the system. We determine for the first time the effective optical depth for the system between 2002 and 2025 assuming gray extinction. The current out-of-eclipse system color is consistent with a combination of the light from both stars, supporting the previously suggested model in which the trailing edge of the circumbinary disk is more transparent than the leading edge. We continue to see evidence for “clumps” and variable transparency along ingress and egress when the stars are probing the occulting material and suggest that observations made during these phases should permit studies of the physical and chemical nature of the planet-forming zone with the circumbinary disk.
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All authors Catrina M. Hamilton, Adi B. Chacko, George A. Carson, Aidan J. Pidgeon, C. Nicole Foley, Hillel Finder, Kyle Gimmy, Aleezah Ali, William Herbst, Dirk Froebrich, Brian A. Skiff, Bart Staels, Shawn Dvorak, Jochen Eislöffel, Teryn Huff, Gavin Frueh, Abigail Mead, Lia M. Gilmore, Robert J. Boyle

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.IM

The Carruthers Mission Concept and Performance

W. Craig, T. Immel, L. Waldrop et al. (+12 more)

The Carruthers Geocoronal Observatory (Carruthers), formerly GLIDE, is a NASA Heliophysics Science Mission of Opportunity implemented through the Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program and launched as a rideshare in September 2025. Carruthers is the first spaceflight mission edicated to continuous global imaging of Earth's hydrogen exosphere through observations of geocoronal Lyman-$\alpha$ emission at 121.6 nm. The observatory operates at distances of 1.3-1.7 million km in a halo orbit about the Sun-Earth L1 point, enabling retrieval of the three-dimensional distribution of atomic hydrogen, the dominant constituent of the exosphere, on hourly timescales and unprecedented spatial resolution. These new data provide the key to understanding processes governing atmospheric escape, geospace coupling, and solar-wind interaction. Carruthers carries the GeoCoronal Imager (GCI), a dual-channel ultraviolet imaging instrument comprising the Narrow-Field Imager (NFI) for high-resolution observations of the inner exosphere and the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) for synoptic imaging of the extended hydrogen halo. Along with a student-provided experiment, the instrument suite is the sole payload aboard a three-axis-stabilized spacecraft designed to support nadir viewing throughout the $\sim178$ day halo orbit about L1. Observations also measure the interplanetary Lyman-$\alpha$ background, enabling separation of heliospheric and geocoronal emissions. The student-led experiment monitors solar Lyman-$\alpha$ and extreme ultraviolet emission during portions of the orbit. Science data are returned through the Deep Space Network at data rates up to 1 Mbit s$^{-1}$. The two-year baseline mission begins in March 2026, with propellant reserves capable of supporting more than ten years of orbit maintenance and maneuvers.
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All authors W. Craig, T. Immel, L. Waldrop, J. Troeltzsch, E. Taylor, J. McPhate, K. Rider, A. Butterworth, D. Cosgrove, J. Thorsness, H. Filippini, K. Lee, S. Shomo, C. McGinn, C. Peterson

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

SMA Observations Reveal Abundant HNC Chemistry in Transition Disks

Kyle Gresko, Charles J. Law, Deryl E. Long et al. (+8 more)

The physical and chemical conditions of protoplanetary disks shape the properties of nascent planetary systems. The line ratios and relative abundances of the HCN-HNC isomer pair are well-suited for tracing these gas conditions, since isomer chemistry is linked to the underlying temperature, elemental abundances, and irradiation environment of the emitting gas. While HCN emits bright lines regularly observed in disks, the fainter HNC lines are targeted significantly less often, precluding our ability to calibrate the HNC-to-HCN ratio as a tracer of disk properties. Here, we present new Submillimeter Array observations of five transition disks around the T Tauri stars GM Aur, J1604, LkCa 15, GG Tau, and V4046 Sgr, covering the J=3-2 and J=4-3 lines of HCN and HNC. We detected at least one line of both HCN and HNC in each source and measured disk-integrated HNC-to-HCN flux and column density ratios of $\approx$0.1-0.7 and 0.1-0.4, respectively. For all sources, measured HNC fluxes exceed predictions from models of full (non-transition) disks by $\approx$3-10x, while HCN fluxes appear typical. The relative brightness of HNC vs. HCN in transition disks strongly suggests a link between the presence of a cavity and efficient HNC production. We corroborate this trend using chemical models of the DM Tau transition disk, showing HNC production and destruction are connected to the radiation environment. In our sample, disk-integrated HNC-to-HCN column density ratio shows no trend with disk gas temperature but positively correlates with disk mass due to increased HNC abundance in the larger reservoirs of cooler gas in more massive disks.
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All authors Kyle Gresko, Charles J. Law, Deryl E. Long, L. Ilsedore Cleeves, Feng Long, Yuri Aikawa, Jennifer B. Bergner, Romane Le Gal, Viviana V. Guzmán, Karin I. Öberg, David J. Wilner

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Technology and Science Advancing Observations with Roman Coronagraph Informed by Ground-Based High-Contrast Imaging

Mona El Morsy, Thayne Currie, Brianna Lacy et al. (+10 more)

The Roman Coronagraph technology demonstration focuses on achieving $<$ 10$^{-7}$ contrasts within the instrument's dark hole and our ability to detect and characterize properties of faint companions around bright stars. Here, we describe results from a study of potential Roman Coronagraph technology demonstration phase observations focused on these goals, informed by the ongoing OASIS survey at the Subaru Telescope and precursor survey work. OASIS provides at least three compelling targets for the technology demonstration phase with imaged companions - the HIP 71618 B brown dwarf and superjovian planets HIP 54515 b and HIP 99770 b. HIP 71618 is well suited for demonstrating the Coronagraph's core performance requirement while all three targets are well suited for spectroscopic mode observations. Each target can be paired with a PSF reference star vetted for companions. While HIP 71618 and HIP 54515 are already planned for Technology Demonstration phase observations, we describe the programmatic and scientific value of adding spectroscopic mode observations of HIP 99770 as well.
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All authors Mona El Morsy, Thayne Currie, Brianna Lacy, Danielle Bovie, Erica Dykes, Jie Li, Olivier Guyon, Julien Lozi, Garima Singh, Kyohoon Ahn, Vincent Deo, Sebastien Vievard, Yoshito Ono

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

A Sulfur-Rich Atmosphere for the Young Jupiter Analog AF Lep b Reveals Significant Solid Accretion

Jerry W. Xuan, William O. Balmer, Yayaati Chachan et al. (+25 more)

AF Lep b is one of the closest analogs to Jupiter in terms of mass ($3-4~M_{\rm{Jup}}$) and semi-major axis ($9$ AU) amenable to spectroscopic characterization. We present JWST/NIRSpec high-contrast spectroscopy of the planet from $2.85-5.3~\mu$m at $R\sim3000$, which provide detections of CO$_2$, H$_2$S, CH$_4$, $^{12}$CO (and $^{13}$CO), and H$_2$O, as well as complementary JWST/NIRCam imaging that captures the planet's continuum flux from $4.0-4.7~\mu$m. Combining the JWST observations with spectra from VLTI/GRAVITY and VLT/SPHERE ($1.0-2.5~\mu$m), we carry out atmospheric retrievals that include the effects of clouds and disequilibrium chemistry while allowing the C, O, and S abundances to vary independently. AF Lep b exhibits metal enrichment across C, O, and S with $\rm C/H=2.9\pm0.5$, $\rm O/H=3.7\pm0.6$, and $\rm S/H=4.7\pm0.7~\times$ solar (and stellar). The planet's slightly sub-solar C/O and C/S are consistent with formation near its observed location, and disfavor formation beyond the CO snowline. The sulfur enrichment in AF Lep b implies significant accretion of disk solids during formation, and we estimate the planet contains $56\pm7~M_{\oplus}$ of solids. The C, O, and S enrichment levels of AF Lep b are similar to those of Jupiter, and other super-Jupiters like HR 8799 bcde. We also show that the degree of atmospheric metal enrichment of these imaged planets is similar to the bulk metal enrichment of transiting gas giants with masses greater than $\sim1~M_{\rm{Jup}}$, suggesting that the process and efficiency of metal accretion for gas giants may not be strongly dependent on orbital distance or planet mass.
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All authors Jerry W. Xuan, William O. Balmer, Yayaati Chachan, Jean-Baptiste Ruffio, Kazumasa Ohno, Robert J. De Rosa, Aneesh Baburaj, Eric L. Nielsen, Ruth Murray-Clay, Jonathan J. Fortney, Marshall D. Perrin, Jason J. Wang, Brendan P. Bowler, Alexander Madurowicz, Bruce A. Macintosh, Yapeng Zhang, Björn Benneke, Alexis Bidot, Geoffrey A. Blake, Kyle Franson, Carrie He, Julie Inglis, Heather A. Knutson, Dimitri Mawet, Laurent Pueyo, Emily Rickman, Aniket Sanghi, Nicole L. Wallack

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from hep-ph

Mysterious Transients in the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-1) as profound manifestation of the Dark Matter physics

Ariel Zhitnitsky

Transient star-like objects of unknown origin have been identified in the first Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-1) as part of the Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project. The source of the transients recorded by POSS-1 remains unknown, which is the warrant to coin the observed phenomena as Mysterious Transients (MT). We advocate an idea that the dark matter (DM) in form of the axion quark nuggets (AQN) made of standard model quarks (or antiquarks) and gluons, similar to the old idea of the Witten's strangelets, could simultaneously explain all the observed MT signals (including very short time scale for flash itself, association with nuclear test timing, observed alignments of several MT events, correlation with UAP reports, etc) collected or recorded for many years. Essentially we argue that the MT is a cousin of Ball Lightning (BL) events, also observed for centuries, without commonly accepted physics explanation. The basic parameters of this model (such as the typical baryon charge of the nuggets) had been fixed long ago by explaining the observed excess of radiation at variety of scales: from galactic to the solar, to local Earth's environments. In this work we use the same framework with the same set of parameters to study the observed MT phenomena. We also suggest several tests which substantiate or refute our proposal. We also present some suggestions on type of instruments required to study this specific (and well defined) type of the UAP events representing the cousins of BL and MT events in the AQN framework.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

IPA: Morphology and Kinematics of Molecular Hydrogen Winds in Five Young Protostars across the Mass Spectrum Observed with JWST

Himanshu Tyagi, P. Manoj, Mayank Narang et al. (+29 more)

Molecular winds may play a key role in governing angular momentum transport and accretion during the early evolution of protostars. We present the morphology and kinematic properties of the H$_2$ emission in five young, envelope-dominated, protostars across a broad bolometric luminosity range, from 0.2 to $10^4~L_{\odot}$, observed with the NIRSpec/IFU and MIRI/MRS onboard JWST as part of the Investigating Protostellar Accretion (IPA) program. A rich set of pure rotational lines of H$_2$, up to $v=0-0$ S(18), and a few ro-vibrational lines are detected in the winds, revealing bipolar structures. The H$_2$ lines show a stratified/onion-like structure morphologically and kinematically, where the lines with higher $E_{\rm up}$ show a higher degree of collimation and higher velocities. Additionally, the wind velocity scales with the $L_{\rm bol}$ of the host protostellar system. In 4 out of 5 protostars, H$_2$ emission fills the outflow cavity without showing pronounced limb brightening. We also report a tentative detection of H$_2$ wind rotation in IRAS 16253, which suggests a launch radius of $\sim4$ au and the magnetic lever arm parameter of $\sim5-10$. Taken together, these properties of the H$_2$ winds can be explained by the magnetohydrodynamic disk wind models. We detect a collimated, high-velocity H$_2$ jet toward HOPS 370, which is more evolved than the extremely young source HH 211, but is accreting at a high accretion rate. This suggests that the presence of collimated molecular jets in protostars is more closely connected to accretion rate than system age.
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All authors Himanshu Tyagi, P. Manoj, Mayank Narang, S. Thomas Megeath, Robert Gutermuth, Lee Hartmann, Alessio Caratti o Garatti, Dan M. Watson, David A. Neufeld, Ewine F. Van Dishoeck, Neal J. Evans II, Vinod Chandra Pathak, Samuel A. Federman, Tyler L. Bourke, Yao-Lun Yang, Guillem Anglada, Henrik Beuther, Leslie W. Looney, Rolf Kuiper, Pamela Klaassen, Pooneh Nazari, Bihan Banerjee, Joel Green, Sujay Vijay Jadhav, Mayra Osorio, B. Shridharan, Amelia M. Stutz, Thomas Stanke, John J. Tobin, Lukasz Tychoniec, Scott Wolk, Manya Arora

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Nascent Embedded-protostar Survey in Taurus (NEST) II: Measuring Dust Mass, Disk Size, and Gas Mass

Noshin Yesmin, Patrick Sheehan, John Tobin et al. (+6 more)

Envelope-embedded protostellar disks represent the earliest stage of protoplanetary disk evolution, but their masses and sizes are difficult to measure because disk emission is entangled with the envelope. We analyze 26 protostellar disk systems in Taurus using ALMA Band 7 (345 GHz; ~0.3”) and VLA Ka-band (33 GHz; ~0.2”) continuum observations, together with molecular-line data to constrain disk gas masses. At 345 GHz, the median flux density, dust mass, and radius are 71 mJy, 5.5 M_Mearth, and 28 AU, with 68% ranges of 54-107 mJy, 3.9-9.4 M_Mearth, and 25-39 AU. At 33 GHz, the corresponding medians are 0.43 mJy, 39 M_Mearth, and 32 AU, with ranges of 0.41-0.80 mJy, 34-52 M_Mearth, and 29-33 AU. Taurus Class I disks are fainter and less massive than those in Orion, comparable to Perseus Class I disks but fainter than Perseus Class 0 disks, and brighter and more massive than those in Ophiuchus. Within Taurus, Class 0/I disks are brighter than Class II disks at both frequencies, although their inferred dust masses are comparable at 345 GHz and slightly higher at 33 GHz. Radiative-transfer modeling of CO isotopologue emission yields a median gas mass of 6.7 x 10^-4 M_Msun. The resulting CO-inferred gas-to-dust ratios span a broad range, with a mean of 147 +/- 75, a median of 26, and a 16th-84th percentile range of 8-147. This distribution overlaps the Taurus Class II population at the low end and ISM-like or higher values, including the AGE-PRO Ophiuchus Class 0/I population, at the high end.
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All authors Noshin Yesmin, Patrick Sheehan, John Tobin, Aislinn Coleman-Plante, Nicholas P. Ballering, Tyler L. Bourke, Josh Eisner, Hauyu Baobab Liu, Zhi-Yun Li

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

TOI-7475 spectroscopic follow up - detection of a massive hot Jupiter on an eccentric orbit

Joanna Pietrucha, Jakub Jerzy Tokarek, Mateusz Witczak et al. (+1 more)

We present the first spectroscopic follow-up for TOI-7475, and report the detection of a planetary-mass companion. Transits with a period of 3.25 days were observed by TESS. The dips in brightness are 0.006 mag and last approximately 4.5 hours. The host star is a spectral type F5 with a mass of approximately 1.48 M$_{\odot}$. We collected 24 high resolution echelle spectra using the PST1 telescope. Analysis of the TESS photometric data and our radial velocities was performed using the Wilson-Devinney method. We obtained a planetary mass of the companion of 12.0$\pm$1.0 M$_{\mathrm{jup}}$. The small semi-major axis and short orbital period classify the planet as a Hot Jupiter. Its orbit is elliptical with an eccentricity of 0.16. The ellipticity is evident in the spectroscopic data and could indicates the young age of the system.
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All authors Joanna Pietrucha, Jakub Jerzy Tokarek, Mateusz Witczak, Wojciech Dimitrov

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.GA

A Chemical Inventory of the Disk around the Class 0 Protostar L1527 IRS with ALMA

Merel L.R. van 't Hoff, Łukasz Tychoniec, John J. Tobin et al. (+1 more)

Planet formation starts in disks that are still embedded within their natal envelopes. Here, we compile an extensive inventory of the chemical composition of the disk and envelope ($<$ 3500 au) around the Class 0 protostar L1527 IRS. Using all publicly available ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) data, we report the detection of 40 molecules, including isotopologues. Of these, 23 are different molecular species and 29 are reported here for the first time toward L1527 in ALMA observations. CH$_3$OH is the only complex organic molecule detected, while the hydrocarbon CH$_3$CCH is the largest molecule detected. Overall, only a few programs are sensitive enough to detect emission unambiguously originating from the disk based on the kinematics. Nitrogen-bearing molecules are predominantly detected on more extended scales, while hydrocarbons show a distinct tail roughly along the southeastern outflow cavity wall, probably due to a stronger UV field in the eastern outflow lobe. The L1527 IRS protostellar system is not rich in sulfur-bearing molecules, with only strong emission observed for CS and SO. Overall, the envelope appears dominated by a carbon-rich chemistry, which seems to transition into an oxygen-rich chemistry in the disk. We calculate column densities of all detected species, providing a starting point to quantify the chemical diversity among young disks and the chemical evolution of the planet-forming material.
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All authors Merel L.R. van 't Hoff, Łukasz Tychoniec, John J. Tobin, Daniel Harsono

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.HE

Global simulations of accretion flows onto perturbers embedded in magnetized disks -I. MRI and jet formation in ideal MHD

Raúl O. Chametla, F. J. Sánchez-Salcedo, Martin E. Pessah et al. (+1 more)

We present the highest resolution global MHD simulations to date of gas flow around a low mass a perturber with mass ratio $q\in[10^{-4},10^{-3}]$, embedded in an accretion disk around a massive central object. We find that gas flow onto the secondary self-consistently forms a turbulent, magnetized mini-accretion disk. The mini-accretion disk sustains a large-scale magnetic field generated by the dynamo effect of the MRI and the accretion flow into the perturber. Simultaneously, a bipolar, collimated, magnetized outflow is launched, extending beyond the perturber's Hill sphere. The bipolar outflows are driven by the combined action of magnetic pressure, in the innermost regions of the mini-accretion disk, and the magnetocentrifugal acceleration of gas, which may attain speeds comparable to the escape velocity from the massive central object. Our results establish an important conceptual connection in accretion disk physics across a wide range of astrophysical systems -from mini-accretion disks to circumstellar and black hole accretion disks-by demonstrating that no fine-tuning is required for small-scale disks to naturally enter an outflow-launching regime. Beyond identifying the physical mechanism responsible for launching small-scale outflows, our framework lays the groundwork for developing more sophisticated physical models of mini-accretion disks around embedded low-mass perturbers.
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All authors Raúl O. Chametla, F. J. Sánchez-Salcedo, Martin E. Pessah, Mauricio Reyes-Ruiz

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

A Machine Learning Based Search for Lunar Anomalies

Cameron Kelahan, Daniel Angerhausen, Adam Lesnikowski et al. (+1 more)

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been collecting high-resolution images (at around 0.5-2 meters per pixel linearly with its Narrow Angle Camera) of the Moon since 2009, amassing a large dataset of images and offering researchers the opportunity to study the surface of the Moon at unprecedented scale. Here, we aim to test the abilities of the Beta-Variational Autoencoder (VAE) created by Lesnikowski et al. (2024), an unsupervised learning model which identifies anomalous features across the Moon's surface, locating not only scientifically useful geologic formations such as rockfall deposits, fresh impact craters, irregular mare patches, or volcanic pits/collapsed lava tubes, but also artificial objects such as landed spacecraft. This investigation further gauged the model's ability to locate anomalous surface features, successfully recovering two places of interest (Plaskett Crater and Paracelsus C Crater) and numerous landed technological assets at a statistically significant rate.
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All authors Cameron Kelahan, Daniel Angerhausen, Adam Lesnikowski, Valentin T. Bickel

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Decoding Exoplanetary Degeneracies Through Geometry: Application to Asynchronously Rotating Systems

Mradumay Sadh

This study augments the geometry-based InstellCa code that calculates accurate irradiance values to InstellCa–2, which computes the longitude averaged instellation over a given latitude on the planet along with its effective temperature profile. The estimation of instellation is performed considering the planet as a 3D body that asynchronously rotates, causing a varying zenith angle of the star resulting in a diurnal cycle. This serves as a specialised case study to demonstrate how the combination of this relative rotation and extreme proximity to host-stars can affect the estimated effective temperatures of close-in planets. 55 Cancri e is selected specifically to demonstrate the importance of this effect as it has been earlier hypothesised to exhibit asynchronous rotation and also has a debated scientific discourse about the existence of an atmosphere on the planet. The TRAPPIST-1 system, being a multi-planetary system susceptible to mean motion resonances, also serves as an interesting exemplar case to demonstrate these effects. Incorporating the stellar zenith angle to the geometrical analysis allows the possibility of physically feasible Bond albedo values that would otherwise be prohibited if a synchronously rotating bare rock scenario is assumed. Consequently, the degeneracies in the modelling of different atmospheric states of such planets can be reduced if the correct geometry is taken into account.
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Sunday 9 August

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Atmospheric Diversity of Giant Planet Analogs from 3-5um with SPHEREx

Rocio Kiman, Brendan P. Bowler, Jerry W. Xuan et al. (+2 more)

The emergent spectra of giant planets peak at thermal infrared wavelengths (3-5um) and possess atmospheric features in this regime that trace carbon chemistry, vertical mixing, clouds, and composition. However, this spectral region is challenging to access from the ground, and with JWST generally requires an independent pointing for each target. SPHEREx is providing all-sky spectra of millions of sources from 0.75-5um, enabling both individual and population-level studies of isolated and widely bound substellar objects. In this work we present a SPHEREx spectrophotometric atlas of 94 young (<300Myr) low-gravity L and T dwarfs to study their atmospheric diversity in the relatively unexplored wavelength range from 3-5um. These include free-floating planetary-mass objects in a range of ages, masses, and temperatures regularly probed with JWST and which will be accessible with upcoming instruments such as Keck/SCALES and ELT/METIS. We compute synthetic JWST/NIRCam and MKO photometry and colors across 22 filters, and examine trends in physically-motivated sets of colors, absolute magnitudes, and spectral types. We find that the lowest-gravity objects generally have the reddest 3-5um colors and tend to be brighter than field L dwarfs for a given spectral type, extending previous patterns originally established at near-infrared wavelengths. Compared to the low-gravity sample of free-floating objects, some giant planets closely follow the low-gravity locus, while others show larger scatter and more extreme colors, pointing to differences in cloud properties, temperature, metallicity, or vertical mixing. The SPHEREx data extraction code developed in this work is made available together with the extracted spectra and synthetic photometry.
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All authors Rocio Kiman, Brendan P. Bowler, Jerry W. Xuan, Narisara Mayer, Claire Finley

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Gas Flows and Mass Accretion Rates in Eight Dippers: HD 142666, HD 143006, HD 145718, V935 Sco, DoAr 25, EPIC 204638512, EPIC 205151387, and EPIC 203850058

Michael L. Sitko, Ray W. Russell, Korash D. Assani et al. (+2 more)

One of the scenarios used to explain the dipper phenomenon in stars is having the innermost disk regions being close to the line of sight to the star - inclined greater than 60 degrees - regardless of the inclination of the outermost disk ("mis-aligned" or "broken" disks). If the dust and gas in these disks sample the same material, edge-on disks will be viewed through larger column densities of gas and dust than the average disk. We have examined inter-night variability of eight Kepler-discovered dipper stars using the SpeX spectrograph on NASA's Infrared Telescope facility at a spectral resolving power of R~750. The He I line at 1.083 microns exhibits a wide variety of profiles, which change from night to night. In the majority of cases, an inverse P Cygni profile, indicative of inflowing gas, is present. The line profile (and continuum flux level) often change on time scales of 1 day. The Paschen and Brackett lines also change on similar time scales. In one object, V935 Sco, Pa beta and Br gamma went from being in emission to being in absorption over the course of 5 weeks. In another, EPIC 203850058, Pa beta went from being in emission in 2017 to vanishing altogether in 2018. The accretion rates determined using Pa beta for these stars tend to be smaller than those using Br gamma, indicating that the former line is more susceptible to self-absorption than the latter, as would be expected for a highly inclined disk.
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All authors Michael L. Sitko, Ray W. Russell, Korash D. Assani, Lucia Villanueva, Jesus Hernandez

Saturday 8 August

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from physics.plasm-ph

Dipole-Field Magnetic Windows for Radio-Frequency Transmission Through Hypersonic Plasma Sheaths: A Reduced-Order Scaling Model

Richard Lieu

Hypersonic vehicles and atmospheric-entry bodies can experience radio-frequency communication blackout when shock-heated gas surrounding the vehicle becomes sufficiently ionized that plasma cutoff and collisional attenuation restrict electromagnetic transmission. Magnetic-window approaches attempt to reduce this loss by exploiting the anisotropic dispersion of a magnetized plasma, in which selected right-hand or whistler-like modes may propagate along preferred directions. This paper develops a reduced-order scaling model for magnetic-window transmission through a finite-thickness hypersonic plasma sheath when the magnetic source is represented as an onboard axial dipole. The model gives a closed-form estimate of the collisionless angular aperture, compares the underlying projected-cyclotron criterion with full cold-plasma dispersion roots, and extends the aperture estimate to a loss-limited cone using a collisional optical-depth approximation. A simplified neutral-density, speed, and ionization closure is used only to generate qualitative parametric maps and sensitivity trends. The results clarify how dipole-field decay, sheath thickness, radio frequency, vehicle scale, electron density, and collisions jointly constrain the candidate transmission window. The contribution is intended as a screening framework for selecting cases for full-wave electromagnetic simulation, nonequilibrium aerothermochemistry, antenna-coupling analysis, and laboratory validation, rather than as a demonstrated engineering solution to plasma blackout.
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Friday 7 August

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

What can Planetary Ice Shells Teach Us about Ocean Mixing and Life, and Why Salt Matters

Nicole Shibley

Past and present climates, both on Earth and in planetary systems, maintain ice covers with underlying oceans. This can range from sea ice in the Arctic Ocean to global ice shells on ice-covered moons in the Solar System to ice sheets in past episodes of Earth's history. When an ice shell overlies an ocean, it becomes challenging to infer what ocean processes could be going on below as in-situ ocean measurements are often lacking. This means that what we learn about ocean mixing must often be inferred from above-surface measurements. Here we synthesize the following ideas: (1) surface observations of past and present planetary ice shells give insight into subsurface ocean stratifications and mixing (and vice versa), (2) the stratification, mixing, and presence of ice in (1) is largely controlled by the ocean salinity, and (3) the interplay between (1) and (2) in past and present planetary systems may provide new insights into habitability and the origins of life.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.IM

Spectrally dispersed non-redundant aperture-masking interferometry in the thermal infrared with LBTI/ALES

T. A. Stuber, J. M. Stone, J. W. Isbell et al. (+5 more)

Non-redundant aperture-masking interferometry maximizes the angular resolution of a telescope by turning it into an interferometric array using pupil plane masks. If the interference pattern on the detector is spectrally dispersed, deeper contrasts of the astrophysical scenery and an improved coverage of its spatial Fourier modes is achieved. We combined a non-redundant aperture mask with the integral field spectrograph ALES of LMIRcam at the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI). With this setup, we recorded spectrally dispersed non-redundant aperture-masking observations in the $L$ band ($\sim$3-4$\,\mu$m). We present commissioning data with which we recovered a known binary star and derived contrast detection limits for further point-source components of ${\sim} 5 \times 10^{-3}$ for separations of ${\gtrsim} 80\,$mas. This is the first time that an integral field spectrograph was combined with a non-redundant aperture mask in the $L$ band. Opening up the thermal infrared for this technique, this new capability enables the LBTI to efficiently survey nearby, bright stars for faint companions, which is of great importance for studies on hot exozodiacal dust and target vetting for future exo-Earth imaging missions such as NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory. A further application is aperture synthesis of extended sources such as active galactic nuclei or evolved stars.
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All authors T. A. Stuber, J. M. Stone, J. W. Isbell, T. De Prins, J. P. Scott, J. A. Eisner, J. Carlson, S. Ertel

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.GA

A clear detection of proper motion confirms that the claimed $\mathbf{z\simeq32}$ galaxy candidate, "Capotauro”, is a Y-type brown dwarf

F.-Y. F. Liu, D. J. McLeod, B. J. Sutlieff et al. (+13 more)

The compact red source “Capotauro”, discovered in deep JWST imaging in 2025, has been suggested as a possible galaxy candidate at redshift $z\simeq32$ on account of its extreme NIRCam colours. However, given the lack of evidence that this source is spatially resolved, a very cool brown dwarf, at a distance consistent with the scale-height of the Milky Way stellar disc ($\simeq 500$ pc), provides an alternative explanation of the observed photometry. Here we exploit new medium-band NIRCam imaging obtained $\simeq 3.5$ years after the discovery data to test this hypothesis. Using filter-dependent point-spread-function fitting, a robust local relative astrometric frame defined by 68 compact reference sources, and a joint four-image injection-recovery analysis, we show that Capotauro has moved by $132 \pm 20$ mas over the 3.5-yr interval span of the observations, ruling out the possibility that it is an extragalactic source (galaxy, AGN, or supernova) at $> 6 \sigma$. The observed apparent proper motion is $(\mu_\xi,\mu_\eta)=(+9.4^{+6.4}_{-4.8},-35.6^{+5.1}_{-5.9})$ mas yr$^{-1}$, or $37.6^{+5.5}_{-5.6}$ mas yr$^{-1}$ in total. Through comparison of its photometric spectral energy distribution with empirical templates, we find that Capotauro is best described as a brown dwarf of spectral type Y$1.0\pm0.5$ ($T_{\rm eff}\approx350$ K) at a distance of $730\pm110$ pc (although the existing data and spectral templates are insufficient to rule out an even colder, later-type brown dwarf). Capotauro is thus one of the most distant Y dwarfs found to date, as expected given its discovery in a deep JWST extragalactic survey field. This result demonstrates the value of multi-epoch imaging for identifying substellar contaminants among the most extreme photometric-redshift candidates.
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All authors F.-Y. F. Liu, D. J. McLeod, B. J. Sutlieff, T. J. Dupuy, J. S. Dunlop, X. Chen, R. J. McLure, H.-H. Leung, S. Antonogiannaki, C. Bondestam, E. Laplace, R. Begley, A. C. Carnall, F. Cullen, C. T. Donnan, R. S. Ellis

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Host–Non-host Differences in Stellar Chemistry, Activity, and Birth Radius: Hints of Distinct Formation Environments for Earth-like Planets and Sub-Neptunes

Xunzhou Chen, Tiancheng Sun, Yuxi Lu et al. (+2 more)

Host-star properties provide important clues to planet formation and evolution, yet it remains unclear whether the observed differences between planet-hosting stars and stars without detected planets reflect genuine signatures of planet formation or underlying differences in stellar populations. Using a homogeneous sample of 28,383 Kepler-LAMOST-Gaia dwarf and subgiant stars, including 629 host stars with 865 planets, we compare host stars with age-mass matched non-host stars after correcting for distribution-induced matching biases. Most host-non-host differences disappear when the full planet sample is considered. However, separating planets by radius reveals distinct trends. At the high-abundance end of the [O/Fe], [Mg/Fe], and [Si/Fe] distributions, Earth-like hosts tend to be more O-rich but more Mg-poor and Si-poor than their age-mass matched non-host stars, whereas sub-Neptune hosts tend to show the opposite behavior. Sub-Neptune hosts also tend to exhibit lower chromospheric activity and smaller birth radii than comparable non-host stars. These results suggest that host-non-host differences become apparent primarily after separating planets by size and that Earth-like planets and sub-Neptunes may be associated with distinct formation environments and evolutionary pathways. We also find that hot-Jupiter hosts are tentatively more metal-rich, chromospherically active, and formed at smaller Galactic birth radii than hosts of longer-period Jupiters.
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All authors Xunzhou Chen, Tiancheng Sun, Yuxi Lu, Liu Long, Zixuan Lu

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from math.DS

GPU-Accelerated Orbit Propagation with High-Fidelity Solar Radiation Pressure Modeling

Leandro Zardaín, Ariadna Farrés, Anna Puig et al. (+2 more)

Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP), the force exerted by photons emitted by the Sun, is one of the main non-gravitational perturbations affecting spacecraft trajectories, making its accurate modeling essential for high-fidelity orbit propagation. While physically-based ray-tracing models improve SRP accuracy, their computational cost becomes a limitation during numerical integration, where the SRP force must be evaluated repeatedly throughout the trajectory propagation. This paper investigates the integration of high-fidelity SRP models into orbit propagation through two complementary contributions: a Vulkan-based GPU implementation that accelerates direct SRP evaluation, and an extension of the SRP model to account for the dynamic orientation of solar panels. These contributions are evaluated independently through orbit propagation experiments, while a precomputed SRP interpolation strategy (SPAD) is included as an alternative approach for reducing computational cost through offline sampling and interpolation. Numerical validation shows that the Vulkan implementation preserves the accuracy of the original OpenGL-based method, showing relative differences below $5\times10^{-4}$ while achieving speed-ups of up to 9.4 for individual SRP computations and up to 15.2 for complete orbit propagation, particularly for geometrically complex spacecraft. The movable solar panel model shows that neglecting panel motion can produce significant long-term propagation errors, especially for spacecraft with large articulated solar panels, while introducing only a moderate computational overhead. Based on the experimental evaluation, this work concludes with practical guidelines for integrating high-fidelity SRP models into orbit propagation frameworks, identifying the scenarios under which interpolation-based methods are sufficient and when online high-fidelity SRP computation is justified.
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All authors Leandro Zardaín, Ariadna Farrés, Anna Puig, Kevin Muntal, Albert Mir

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Instability and Angular Momentum Transfer in Thick Circumbinary Disks

Allen R. Murray and Paul C. Duffell

Utilizing the DISCO code we solve the 2D hydrodynamic equations for an equal mass circular restricted binary with an isothermal circumbinary disk (CBD). This work explores the eccentric instability in the CBD and angular momentum transfer, and their dependence on disk thickness and viscosity. The focus is specifically on thicker CBDs, with Mach number, ($\mathcal{M}\leq 14$). The growth rate of the disk cavity's eccentricity and the angular momentum transport from accretion is calculated as diagnostics for binary-disk morphology evolution. Calculations of CBD torques must run long enough to allow saturation of the disk's eccentric instability. The torque on the binary rapidly flips sign once the instability saturates. Thus we connect eccentricity saturation to a reversal in migration behavior for the binary. The binary experiences inward migration while the disk is in an evolving state, and outward migration once the disk eccentricity has saturated. The saturation time was found to be non-linearly dependent on Mach number and thicker CBDs require longer evolution time for a quasi-steady state to appear. The eccentric instability is not present for $\mathcal{M} \lesssim 5$, and therefore migration reverses direction, leading to robustly inward migration for very thick disks $h/r \gtrsim 0.2$. The results of this work were found to be consistent with community results for Mach numbers $\mathcal{M} \ge 10$.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Pyrat Bay 2.0: an Upgraded Framework for Exoplanet Atmosphere Modeling in the JWST Era

Patricio E. Cubillos, Jasmina Blecic, Denis Shulyak et al. (+1 more)

This article presents a major update to the open-source Pyrat Bay modeling framework (version 2.0), tailored for the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres with the observational capabilities of current facilities, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and future missions. The upgraded framework introduces a standalone chemistry package, chemcat, enabling the modeling of exoplanet atmospheres via thermochemical-equilibrium calculations with custom compositions, self-consistent radiative-equilibrium thermal profiles, and equilibrium-chemistry retrievals. Other key implementations include nested sampling via MultiNest, isotopic-ratio fitting, transit light source modeling, and free-chemistry parameterization allowing vertical variations in volume mixing ratios. We validated the thermochemical- and radiative-equilibrium modules via comparisons with the GGchem, FastChem, and HELIOS codes. We present an application of the new modeling framework by conducting an atmospheric characterization study using simulated transmission spectra of high signal-to-noise observations for a gas-giant exoplanet. We found that vertical abundance variations in planetary atmospheres can be accurately recovered using data of JWST quality. In such cases, retrievals that neglect these variations may result in biased abundance constraints, e.g., when employing the commonly used free-chemistry approach assuming constant abundance profiles. The results highlight the potential of JWST to study the multi-dimensional nature of exoplanetary atmospheres and their underlying physical processes.
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All authors Patricio E. Cubillos, Jasmina Blecic, Denis Shulyak, Luca Fossati

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.SR

Euclid Early Release Observations of the Barnard 30 dark cloud I. Brown dwarfs and planetary mass candidate members at the core of the association

D. Barrado, H. Bouy, E. L. Martin et al. (+8 more)

This study aims to identify very low-mass members within the Barnard 30 dark cloud, with a particular focus on detecting objects in the substellar domain, including those within the planetary-mass regime. We employed deep photometric observations using data from the Euclid mission, incorporating advanced data processing techniques, in particular the DeNeb tool for optimized source detection. We also analyze multi-wavelength ancillary observations and perform a Spectral Energy Distribution analysis for each candidate member. In addition, low-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy was obtained for one candidate to further assess its nature and properties. Our initial photometric analysis yielded a initial sample of nearly one hundred candidate members in the substellar mass range. A subsample of 23 probable members, located close to the 3 Myr isochrone, has been identified. Thus, we have substantially expanded the known population of faint, cool sources associated with the region. Low resolution near-IR spectroscopic analysis of one candidate reveals an L2 spectral type with low gravity, consistent with a young ultra-cool dwarf. If its membership is confirmed, its estimated mass lies in the range 15-20 Mjup. These findings validate the reliability of our multi-wavelength photometric selection methodology. These results offer valuable insights into the low-mass end of the initial mass function (IMF) and demonstrate the effectiveness of Euclid in identifying brown dwarf and planetary-mass candidates in nearby, densely packed star-forming regions.
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All authors D. Barrado, H. Bouy, E. L. Martin, J.-C. Cuillandre, N. Huélamo, M. Žerjal, C. Dominguez-Tagle, S. Muñoz Torres, J.-Y. Zhang, E. Bertin, J. Olivares