Program: GN-2008B-Q-59

Recent observational and theoretical results imply that the frequency of massive planetary companions to stars increases with increasing stellar mass. This has motivated direct imaging searches for exoplanets around stars more massive than the sun, which have previously been neglected. Here we propose to extend this approach and to take one step further by studying the very most massive nearby stars (15 stars in the range of B1-A0 with a median distance of 40 pc) with a new method specifically adapted to this purpose. Based on theoretical models and previous results, we expect sensitivity to companions <10 Mjup at ~20-50 AU, and <5 Mjup at larger separations. The survey will open up a new discovery space for exoplanets, and will address questions of the formation of planets and BDs.