We are searching for a new post-doctoral researcher in exoplanet science / instrumentation. Please see our new advertisement in the AAS Job Register. Prof. Meyer is happy to answer any questions. Applications are welcome now, encouraged before January 15, and all applications received before February 1 will receive a full review. Late applications will be reviewed on an as needed basis. An offer will be made as soon as possible after February 1, and before February 15.

We are pleased to announce the launch of our interdisciplinary exoplanet research initiative MI Planets! MI Planets brings together researchers from the Departments of Astronomy, Physics, Earth and Environmental Sciences, all in the College of Literature, Art, and Sciences, as well as the Climate and Space Science Department in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. We have common interests in exoplanets and planetary science, and approach similar questions from a variety of points of view. MI Planets fosters collaboration, organizes seminars and conferences, collects and creates research opportunities for students and post-doctoral fellows, and sustains a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our research enterprise. Come join us!

The High Contrast Imaging Planets and Disks Early Release Science Team, of which FEPS is a part, has submitted its first papers, including images of HIP 65426 b. This planet was discovered as part of the SPHERE SHINE survey (Chauvin et al. 2017), in which FEPS also plays an important role. These new data characterize the emission from that young, low surface gravity, super-Jupiter mass companion found at 90 AU. In particular, JWST data from 1-20 microns helps by providing an accurate bolometric luminosity for the object, as well as places upper limits on any excess infrared emission from a hypothetical circumplanetary disks. Congratulations to the entire ERS team (led by S. Hinkley, B. Biller, and A. Skemer)! UM Co-authors include P. Calissendorff, G. Cugno, M. De Furio, and M. Meyer. Former FEPS group members A. Greenbaum and A. Howe are also co-authors on this paper.

The paper led by Vito Squicciarini describing the detection of a planetary mass companion around the massive star mu 2 Sco is highlighted this week in the journal Nature. The paper describes the second detection from the BEAST Survey, led by Markus Janson, in which FEPS is involved. Congrats Vito!

Post-doctoral Fellow Per Calissendorff made an oral presentation during a splinter session at the recent Cool Stars 21 meeting in France and Matthew De Furio presented a poster. Per’s presentation described work led by him to characterize the very lowest mass companions to already low mass stars. Matthew’s presentation related to his work on multiplicity of low mass stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster. Cool Stars, held every two years, is one of the most important international conferences on very low mass stars. The 2021 meeting was delayed due to COVID-19.

Rory Bowens will describe the current effort to upgrade the MIRAC-5 instrument with a new Geosnap detector, a project led by the FEPS group at UM as well as Jarron Leisenring and colleagues at the University of Arizona. MIRAC-5 will be deployed this year on the 6.5 meter MMT in Arizona (pictured below) with the new MAPS adaptive optics system and is destined for Magellan in the future. We hope to obtain the first mid-infrared continuum measurement of gas giant planets discovered at other wavelengths, and the first detection of ammonia in the spectrum of an extremely cool companion to a normal star.

And so do we. Below is one of those first images from JWST, of a region in the Carina Nebula, an active star forming region that includes numerous massive stars. Check out related press activity here and here and related Michigan Minds podcast here. The first data in which our team is involved have already been taken and we are getting ready for the new discoveries to come!

Per Calissendorff is presenting a poster concerning the new MIRAC-5 camera featuring the Geosnap detector at the Spirit of Lyot Conference 2022, which focusses on new results and techniques for high contrast imaging.

Congratulations to Rory Bowens for posting his new paper describing the new MIRAC-5 camera utilizing the new Geosnap detector. Rory will present this work in a talk at the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation and Telescopes 2022 Meeting in Montreal later this summer.

Graduate student Matthew De Furio led a successful Hubble Space Telescope proposal for Cycle 30 we found out this week. The program is to survey the young star cluster NGC 1333, with the ACS/WFC, to search for stellar multiplicity as a function of location in the cluster and host star mass. These data, complementary to a NIRISS GTO program in which we are involved, will survey this intermediate density young star association, to compare with higher density regions, such as the ONC, and lower density star forming events such as those in nearby dark clouds (e.g. Taurus). Congratulations Matthew!