Poster Presentation Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting including HWWS 2013

Direct Imaging Of Long Period Radial Velocity Exoplanet Systems With NICI (#264)

Graeme S. Salter 1 , Chris G. Tinney 1 , Rob Wittenmyer 1 , Hugh R.A. Jones 2 , James S. Jenkins 3 , Simon O'Toole 4
  1. UNSW, Kensington Campus, NSW, Australia
  2. University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK
  3. Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
  4. Australian Astronomical Observatory, North Ryde, NSW, Australia

We are finally entering an era of exoplanet research where radial velocity and direct imaging parameter spaces are starting to overlap. Radial velocity measurements provide us with a minimum mass for an orbiting companion (the mass as a function of the inclination of the system). By following up these long period radial velocity detections with direct imaging we can determine whether a trend seen is due to an orbiting planet at low inclination of an orbiting brown dwarf at high inclination. In the event of a non-detection we are still able to put a limit on the maximum mass of the orbiting body. The Anglo-Australian Planet Search (AAPS) is one of the longest baseline radial velocity planet searches in existence, amongst its targets are many that show long period trends in the data. I will present our direct imaging survey of these objects with our results to date. ADI Observations have been made using NICI (Near Infrared Coronagraphic Imager) on Gemini South and analysed using an in house, LOCI-like, post processing.