Exoplanets, -moons, -comets

Analysis Of The Young Disk Around WRAY 15-1880: Does It Contain A Primitive Planetary System?

By Keith Cowing

Status Report

astro-ph.SR

June 11, 2026

Filed under ALMA, astro-ph.SR, astrogeology, astronomy, Corona Australis, exoplanet, imaging, Protoplanetary Disk, telescope, VLT-MUSE, VLT-SPHERE, WRAY 15-1880

Analysis Of The Young Disk Around WRAY 15-1880: Does It Contain A Primitive Planetary System? — Left: Q_ϕ image of WRAY 15-1880 obtained from the SPHERE polarimetric data. The red dot at the center of the image marks the position of the star; the dashed white circle is the size of the coronagraph used in this observation. The dotted straight lines mark the major and minor axes, as obtained by Curone et al. (2025). Right: similar image, but projected on the disk plane (i “ 39.22 deg) and rotated to have the major axis vertical and the minor axis horizontal. On this plane, the coronagraphic mask is an ellipse represented by the white dashed line. The yellow circle has a radius of 214.1 mas that is the peak of the disk as determined by the ALMA data (see Section 3.3.2). The center of this circle has been offset by 37 mas along the minor axis, to fit the outer contour of the observed disk East of the star, that is the closest side of the disk. The red solid circle (radius of 110 mas) fits the feature seen north of the star. The position of the planet discussed in Section 3.2 at the epoch of the SPHERE polarimetric observation is marked with a small white circle, and its orbit is shown as magenta circle. — astro-ph.SR

Observations of (giant) planets accreting material within their natal environment are crucial to constrain models for their formation.

WRAY 15-1880 (aka RX J1842.9-3532) in the Corona Australis (CrA) complex has a prominent pre-transitional disk, and an age of ~2.8+-0.7 Myr, computed by comparison with isochrones using the accurate dynamical mass derived from disk kinematics.

Hence, this star is in the late phases of disk evolution and might host accreting planets. We acquire new polarimetric imaging data with VLT-SPHERE and analyze archive observations taken with VLT-SPHERE, VLT-MUSE, and ALMA, finding a candidate Jupiter-like companion within the disk gap from high-contrast imaging.

The mass estimates of the candidate companion, derived from various methods, are consistent with an object in the range of 0.3-7.6 M_Jup. The spectrum of the candidate companion is consistent with a T3 spectral type, in agreement with expectations of an object of a few Jupiter masses.

We find an emission blob North-West of the star in the ALMA data rotating solidly with the candidate companion, that can be interpreted as a vortex/dust trap at the m=1 Lindblad resonance of the planet.

Accretion on the candidate planet is not detected from the VLT-MUSE archival data. This may be due to insufficient contrast, an observational geometry that is unfavorable for viewing the planet’s surface, or it could indicate that we are merely observing irregularities within the disk.

Finally, we identify a microjet extending from the star perpendicular to the disk in these data.

Elisabetta Rigliaco, Raffaele Gratton, Silvano Desidera, Gabriele Columba, Enrico Grippi

Comments: Accepted for publication by A&A on June 8th 2026, 15 pages, 13 figures
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2606.10816 [astro-ph.SR] (or arXiv:2606.10816v1 [astro-ph.SR] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.10816
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Submission history
From: Elisabetta Rigliaco
[v1] Tue, 9 Jun 2026 12:59:04 UTC (2,704 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.10816

Astrobiology,

Keith Cowing

Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member 🖖🏻

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