ES-03-0038

CT Cha b in comparison to the six other directly imaged planet candidates of late 2008

Tobias O. B. Schmidt

In 2008 seven directly imaged planet candidates around five stars were published in quick succession from September to December. Here we give new results on CT Cha b (Schmidt et al.) and compare the candidates based on recent results of the other candidates, RX J1609.5-2105 b (1RXS 1609 b, Lafrenière et al.), HR 8799 b, c, d (Marois et al.), Fomalhaut b (Kalas et al.), Beta Pic b (Lagrange et al.). While few of the candidates are now confirmed to be in the planetary mass regime with about 2 sigma significance, the age or even the existence of others still need confirmation. According to our results and recent publications for none of the objects the possibility of being a planetary companion can be rejected, yet.