December 5, 2013

HD 106906 b: A planetary-mass companion outside a massive debris disk


We report the discovery of a planetary-mass companion, HD 106906 b, with the new Magellan Adaptive Optics (MagAO) + Clio2 system. The companion is detected with Clio2 in three bands: J, KS, and L′, and lies at a projected separation of 7.1” (650 AU). It is confirmed to be comoving with its 13±2 Myr-old F5 host using Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys astrometry over a time baseline of 8.3 yr. DUSTY and COND evolutionary models predict the companion’s luminosity corresponds to a mass of 11±2MJup, making it one of the most widely separated planetary-mass companions known.