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Issue A&A
Volume 464, Number 1, March II 2007
Page(s) 373 - 375
Section Planets and planetary systems
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20066432



A&A 464, 373-375 (2007)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20066432

Deep imaging survey of the environment of $\alpha$ Centauri

II. CCD imaging with the NTT-SUSI2 camera
P. Kervella1 and F. Thévenin2

1  LESIA, UMR 8109, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France
    e-mail: Pierre.Kervella@obspm.fr
2  Laboratoire Cassiopée, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, BP 4229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France

(Received 22 September 2006 / Accepted 12 November 2006 )

Abstract
Context.Thanks to its proximity, $\alpha$ Centauri is an outstanding target for an imaging search for extrasolar planets.
Aims.We searched for faint comoving companions to $\alpha$ Cen located at angular distances of a few tens of arcseconds, up to 2-3 arcmin.
Methods.We obtained CCD images from the NTT-SUSI2 instrument in the Bessel V, R, I, and Z bands, and archive data from 2MASS.
Results.We present a catalogue of the detected objects inside a 5.5 arcmin box around this star. A total of 4313 sources down to $m_V \approx 24$ and $m_I \approx 22$ were detected in the SUSI2 images. The infrared photometry of part of these sources has been extracted from the 2MASS images.
Conclusions.No comoving companion to $\alpha$ Centauri were detected between 100 and 300 AU, down to a maximum mass of $\approx$15 times Jupiter. We also mostly exclude the presence of a companion more massive than 30 MJ between 50 and 100 AU.


Key words: stars: individual: $\alpha$ Centauri -- planetary systems -- stars: imaging -- solar neighbourhood -- astronomical data bases: miscellaneous



© ESO 2007

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