JWST-YSES: a Young Suns Exoplanet Survey to study the demographics of sub-Jovian planets around Sun-like stars and unveil the formation and evolution history of widely separated companions

Jens Kammerer, Laurent Pueyo, William Balmer, Ell Bogat, Mariangela Bonavita, Zach Burr, Aarynn L. Carter, Christine Chen, Gabriele Cugno, Clemence Fontanive, Christian Ginski, Julien Girard, Sasha Hinkley, Kielan K. W. Hoch, Matthew Kenworthy, Elena Manjavacas, Marshall Perrin, Isabel Rebollido, Emily Rickman, Richelle Felicia van Capelleveen

Research output: Other contribution (Published)Other contribution

Abstract

As of now, the vast majority of wide separation giant planets around FGK-type hosts have been imaged around stars in the ~10–15 Myr Sco-Cen association or younger. To this date, the origin of this population of widely-separeted massive (>5 MJup) giant planets remains elusive. However, today JWST presents a unique opportunity to resolve this mystery, by probing the giant planet frequency for less massive (0.1-5 MJup) companions which only JWST can detect. This proposal aims to (1) measure the frequency of young long-period sub-Jovian exoplanets which still lacks observational constraints and (2) distinguish between in-situ formation via gravitational instability vs. formation via core accretion closer to the star followed by outward migration/scattering as the origin of the existing massive (>5 MJup) Sco-Cen giant planets. These goals will be achieved by searching for new 0.1-5 MJup giant planets around 30 Sun-like stars in the Sco-Cen association using NIRCam coronagrapy and comparing observations to planet population synthesis simulations. Should the core-accretion+migration scenario prevail, this proposal will uncover a large reservoir of wide separation sub-Jovian planets. On the other hand, if the existing massive Sco-Cen planets formed via gravitaional instability, this proposal will detect no new sub-Jovian planets because in-situ formation is extremely inefficient for these low-mass planets at wide separations from the star. As such, this proposal will provide the first demographic evidence for giant planet migration/scattering - or lack thereof - of giant planets orbiting wider than 10 au, and further populate the age-luminosity diagram for sub-Jovian planets....
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2025

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