research
Seconds of MIRI Exposure Reached the Sub-Jupiter Regime
A surprise companion in calibration data exposed a short, noncoronagraphic route to nearby cold planets.
Summary
A surprise companion in calibration data exposed a short, noncoronagraphic route to nearby cold planets.
Short JWST/MIRI calibration images revealed a stellar companion 1.3 arcseconds from HD 101452 with a mid-infrared flux ratio near 27×, disqualifying the system as a single-star calibrator. Contrast curves indicate that 17–42-second, noncoronagraphic integrations could detect sub-Jupiter-mass planets at Solar-System-like separations around a subset of nearby stars when a closely brightness-matched reference is available. The planet sensitivities are predictions from these data, not new planet detections.
Why it matters
A surprise companion in calibration data exposed a short, noncoronagraphic route to nearby cold planets.
Limits and context
- The planet sensitivities are predictions from these data, not new planet detections.
Key claims
A surprise companion in calibration data exposed a short, noncoronagraphic route to nearby cold planets.
Qualification: The planet sensitivities are predictions from these data, not new planet detections.
Evidence: source-2026-09-17-021
Sources
- arXiv preprint 2609.19133arXiv · primary research
Corrections
No corrections have been recorded for this story.