Kavli Affiliate: Andrew Vanderburg
| First 5 Authors: Mary Anne Limbach, Andrew Vanderburg, Alexander Venner, Simon Blouin, Kevin B. Stevenson
| Summary:
The MIRI Exoplanets Orbiting White dwarfs (MEOW) Survey is a cycle 2 JWST
program to search for exoplanets around dozens of nearby white dwarfs via
infrared excess and direct imaging. In this paper, we present the detection of
mid-infrared excess at 18 and 21 microns towards the bright (V = 11.4)
metal-polluted white dwarf WD 0310-688. The source of the IR excess is almost
certainly within the system; the probability of background contamination is
$<0.1%$. While the IR excess could be due to an unprecedentedly small and cold
debris disk, it is best explained by a $3.0^{+5.5}_{-1.9}$ M$_{rm Jup}$ cold
(248$^{+84}_{-61}$ K) giant planet orbiting the white dwarf within the
forbidden zone (the region where planets are expected to be destroyed during
the star’s red giant phase). We constrain the source of the IR excess to an
orbital separation of 0.1-2 AU, marking the first discovery of a white dwarf
planet candidate within this range of separations. WD 0310-688 is a young
remnant of an A or late B-type star, and at just 10.4 pc it is now the closest
white dwarf with a known planet candidate. Future JWST observations could
distinguish the two scenarios by either detecting or ruling out spectral
features indicative of a planet atmosphere.
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