The Impact of Stellar Multiplicity on Planetary Systems, I.: The Ruinous Influence of Close Binary Companions

Understand

The dynamical influence of binary companions is expected to profoundly influence planetary systems.

• However, the difficulty of identifying planets in binary systems has left the magnitude of this effect uncertain; despite numerous theoretical hurdles to their formation and survival, at least some binary systems clearly host planets.
• We present high-resolution imaging of 382 Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) obtained using adaptive-optics imaging and nonredundant aperture-mask interferometry (NRM) on the Keck-II telescope.
• Among the full sample of 506 candidate binary companions to KOIs, we super-resolve some binary systems to projected separations of <5 AU, showing that planets might form in these dynamically active environments.