J/A+A/711/A292 HD 135344B multi-epoch images (Latour+, 2026)
Multi-epoch scattered-light analysis of HD 135344B:
New evidence for spiral-driving protoplanet
Latour J., Christiaens V., Absil O., Bonse M., Savonet R., Juillard S.,
Hammond I., Casassus S., Cieza L., Cugno G., Desgrange C., Lacour S.,
Mawet D., Montesinos M., Perez S., Pinte C., Reggiani M., Stolker T.,
van der Marel N., Zurlo A.
<Astron. Astrophys. 711, A292 (2026)>
=2026A&A...711A.292L 2026A&A...711A.292L (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Stars, variable ; Polarization ; Infrared
Keywords: techniques: image processing - protoplanetary disks -
planet-disk interactions - stars: individual: HD 135344B (SAO 206462)
Abstract:
The HD 135344B (SAO 206462) disk exhibits strong signposts of planet
formation both in scattered light and sub-mm continuum images. ALMA
images in the sub-mm revealed a gap-crossing dust filament whose
position coincides with a twist detected in the scattered-light spiral
structure. Analysis of the spiral dynamics in polarized light also
hints at a spiral-driving protoplanet in the sub-mm gap.
We aim to study the overall dynamics of the three spirals in the disk,
as well as the motion of the twist over a 10-year baseline, at
different IR wavelengths. We also seek to assess the authenticity of a
candidate protoplanet recently claimed in the disk.
We use high-fidelity post-processing algorithms such as iterative
principal component analysis to minimize the biases induced by angular
differential imaging on extended sources and conduct a thorough
analysis of archival VLT/NACO, VLT/SPHERE, and VLT/ERIS datasets in
order to obtain the spiral traces and measure their orbital motion in
multiple wavelength bands in scattered light. We also reprocess
archival JWST/NIRCam datasets with these algorithms.
We measure an average spiral orbital motion of 0.81±0.05deg/year,
in agreement with the literature value of about 0.85 deg/year at all
wavelengths. With simple modeling of the twist morphology, we confirm
that it is indeed co-moving with the spiral in which it is embedded.
While the position angle of the twist coincides with the dust
filament, it is located at a smaller angular separation from the star,
which we attribute to the fact that the spiral trace moves away from
the central star with increasing wavelength. We find that a previously
claimed protoplanet candidate in the disk can be adequately explained
as a post-processing artifact.
Our confirmation that the motion of the scattered light twist is
consistent with the orbital velocity of a planet at 69±4 au over a
10-year baseline suggests that the spirals, the gap and the dust
filament in the sub-mm continuum, as well as the twist in scattered
light, could indeed all be attributed to the same hypothetical
protoplanet deeply embedded within the spiral. A perplexing trend for
a wavelength-dependence of the angular distance of the spiral traces
to the central star still remains to be explained.
Description:
All available figures are disk images presented in Fig. B.1. of the
article.
Naming convention of the files is as follows:
"target-observing_night-instrument-filter name"
Objects:
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RA (2000) DE Designation(s)
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15 15 48.44 -37 09 16.0 HD135344B = TIC 307602388
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File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
list.dat 121 31 List of fits image
fits/* . 31 Individual fits images
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: list.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 2 I2 h RAh Simbad right ascension (J2000)
4- 5 I2 min RAm Simbad right ascension (J2000)
7- 11 F5.2 s RAs Simbad right ascension (J2000)
12 A1 --- DE- Simbad declination sign (J2000)
13- 14 I2 deg DEd Simbad declination (J2000)
16- 17 I2 arcmin DEm Simbad declination (J2000)
19- 22 F4.1 arcsec DEs Simbad declination (J2000)
25- 27 I3 --- Nx Number of pixels along X-axis
29- 31 I3 --- Ny Number of pixels along Y-axis
33- 42 A10 "datime" Obs.date Observation date
45- 47 I3 Kibyte size Size of FITS file
49- 83 A35 --- FileName Name of FITS file, in subdirectory fits
85-121 A37 --- Title Title of the FITS file
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Acknowledgements:
Justin Latour, justin.latour(at)uliege.be
License: CC-BY-4.0
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 09-Jun-2026