Dataset Information

Imaging low-mass planets within the habitable zone of α Centauri.

ABSTRACT: Giant exoplanets on wide orbits have been directly imaged around young stars. If the thermal background in the mid-infrared can be mitigated, then exoplanets with lower masses can also be imaged. Here we present a ground-based mid-infrared observing approach that enables imaging low-mass temperate exoplanets around nearby stars, and in particular within the closest stellar system, α Centauri. Based on 75-80% of the best quality images from 100 h of cumulative observations, we demonstrate sensitivity to warm sub-Neptune-sized planets throughout much of the habitable zone of α Centauri A. This is an order of magnitude more sensitive than state-of-the-art exoplanet imaging mass detection limits. We also discuss a possible exoplanet or exozodiacal disk detection around α Centauri A. However, an instrumental artifact of unknown origin cannot be ruled out. These results demonstrate the feasibility of imaging rocky habitable-zone exoplanets with current and upcoming telescopes.

SUBMITTER: Wagner K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7876126 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Imaging low-mass planets within the habitable zone of α Centauri.

Wagner K K Boehle A A Pathak P P Kasper M M Arsenault R R Jakob G G Käufl U U Leveratto S S Maire A-L AL Pantin E E Siebenmorgen R R Zins G G Absil O O Ageorges N N Apai D D Carlotti A A Choquet É É Delacroix C C Dohlen K K Duhoux P P Forsberg P P Fuenteseca E E Gutruf S S Guyon O O Huby E E Kampf D D Karlsson M M Kervella P P Kirchbauer J-P JP Klupar P P Kolb J J Mawet D D N'Diaye M M Orban de Xivry G G Quanz S P SP Reutlinger A A Ruane G G Riquelme M M Soenke C C Sterzik M M Vigan A A de Zeeuw T T

Nature communications 20210210 1

Giant exoplanets on wide orbits have been directly imaged around young stars. If the thermal background in the mid-infrared can be mitigated, then exoplanets with lower masses can also be imaged. Here we present a ground-based mid-infrared observing approach that enables imaging low-mass temperate exoplanets around nearby stars, and in particular within the closest stellar system, α Centauri. Based on 75-80% of the best quality images from 100 h of cumulative observations, we demonstrate sensiti ...[more]

PMID: 33568657

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Project description:MotivationLong arrays of near-identical tandem repeats are a common feature of centromeric and subtelomeric regions in complex genomes. These sequences present a source of repeat structure diversity that is commonly ignored by standard genomic tools. Unlike reads shorter than the underlying repeat structure that rely on indirect inference methods, e.g. assembly, long reads allow direct inference of satellite higher order repeat structure. To automate characterization of local centromeric tandem repeat sequence variation we have designed Alpha-CENTAURI (ALPHA satellite CENTromeric AUtomated Repeat Identification), that takes advantage of Pacific Bioscience long-reads from whole-genome sequencing datasets. By operating on reads prior to assembly, our approach provides a more comprehensive set of repeat-structure variants and is not impacted by rearrangements or sequence underrepresentation due to misassembly.ResultsWe demonstrate the utility of Alpha-CENTAURI in characterizing repeat structure for alpha satellite containing reads in the hydatidiform mole (CHM1, haploid-like) genome. The pipeline is designed to report local repeat organization summaries for each read, thereby monitoring rearrangements in repeat units, shifts in repeat orientation and sites of array transition into non-satellite DNA, typically defined by transposable element insertion. We validate the method by showing consistency with existing centromere high order repeat references. Alpha-CENTAURI can, in principle, run on any sequence data, offering a method to generate a sequence repeat resolution that could be readily performed using consensus sequences available for other satellite families in genomes without high-quality reference assemblies.Availability and implementationDocumentation and source code for Alpha-CENTAURI are freely available at http://github.com/volkansevim/alpha-CENTAURI CONTACT: ali.bashir@mssm.eduSupplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Dataset Information

Imaging low-mass planets within the habitable zone of α Centauri.

Publications

Imaging low-mass planets within the habitable zone of α Centauri.

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