Probing for Exoplanets Hiding in Dusty Debris Disks: Disk Imaging, Characterization, and Exploration with HST/STIS Multi-roll Coronagraphy
Authors: Glenn Schneider, Carol A. Grady, Dean C. Hines, Christopher C. Stark, John H. Debes, Joe Carson, Marc J. Kuchner, Marshall D. Perrin, Alycia J. Weinberger, John P. Wisniewski, Murray D. Silverstone, Hannah Jang-Condell, Thomas Henning, Bruce E. Woodgate, Eugene Serabyn, Amaya Moro-Martin, Motohide Tamura, Phillip M. Hinz, and Timothy J. Rodigas
Schneider et al.
2014 The Astronomical Journal14859.
Provider: AAS Journals
Caption: Figure 6.
Smallest of the ACS coronagraphic masks (used in the HD 181327 scattered-light disk co-discovery imaging, panel (A)) provides r ⩽ 09 IWA obscuration. However, ACS PSF-subtraction residuals completely dominate the disk light interior to the radius of the peak SB of the ring (r = 17) revealed by NICMOS PSFTSC (see Figure 1(B)) using various methods of different aggressiveness. The residuals seen in the ACS image are largely suppressed to much smaller stellocentric angles with STIS 6R/PSFTSC beyond the effective six-roll combined WedgeA-0.6 limiting, IWAeffective of r = 03. Here, deeper (and better sampled) imaging of the outer portions of the disk with STIS 6R/PSFTSC (panel (B)) simultaneously provides high-fidelity, high-S/N imaging of the outer portions' low SB of the disk, the bright debris ring, and the largely cleared region in the ring interior. Both images: full FOV = 25'' × 25'', north up, east left.