Characterizing the population of wide orbit exoplanets

This project used Spitzer Space Telescope observations of nearby stars to search for giant planets in wide orbits. We surveyed stars within 8pc in the Spitzer IRAC 2 band (4.5 microns) with two epochs to identify commoving companions to stars. The goal was to find cold (T_eff<400K) giant planets at distances up to 1500AU. A survey model based on the population of wide planetary mass companions found in star forming regions suggested approximately 8 cold planets would be found by the survey. Any individual objects discovered would be excellent follow-up targets for JWST to further study the atmospheres of cold giant planets.