JWST/NIRCam Imaging of Young Stellar Objects. I. Constraints on Planets Exterior to the Spiral Disk Around MWC 758

Abstract

MWC 758 is a young star hosting a spiral protoplanetary disk. The spirals are likely companion-driven, and two previously identified candidate companions have been identified—one at the end the Southern spiral arm at ∼0.″6, and one interior to the gap at ∼0.″1. With JWST/NIRCam, we provide new images of the disk and constraints on planets exterior to ∼1″. We detect the two-armed spiral disk, a known background star, and a spatially resolved background galaxy, but no clear companions. The candidates that have been reported are at separations that are not probed by our data with sensitivity sufficient to detect them−nevertheless, these observations place new limits on companions down to ∼2 M _Jup at ∼150 au and ∼0.5 M _Jup at ≳600 au. Owing to the unprecedented sensitivity of JWST and youth of the target, these are among the deepest mass-detection limits yet obtained through direct imaging observations, and provide new insights into the system’s dynamical nature.

Keywords

• Exoplanets
• Protoplanetary disks
• High contrast techniques
• James Webb Space Telescope
• Planet formation
• Exoplanet formation