Program: GN-2012A-Q-48

Over the past few months, three giant planets with masses of ~6-12 MJup have been discovered orbiting young (~1-3 Myrs) M dwarfs. Unlike most of the other rare giant planets that have been directly imaged, these new companions have wide orbits (0.6''-1.7'', or 70-220 AU) and are amenable to follow-up spectroscopy. These new companions remain proprietary and our group has first access to follow-up spectroscopy, which will double the sample of planetary-mass companions with published spectroscopy. These data will allow us to verify the planets' youth and low temperature, test giant planet atmospheric and evolutionary models for the first time at these ages, and gain insight into their formation by searching for signatures of circum-planetary disks through infrared emission lines.