First results from high-contrast imaging with JWST in the landscape of ESO instrumentation

The recently commissioned James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) opens up a new parameter space for the exploration of exoplanets and circumstellar disks. I will present observations of two substellar companions and one debris disk from the high-contrast imaging JWST ERS program that demonstrate, for the first time, sensitivity to young sub-Jupiter mass planets and access to the full luminous range of cooling gas giants and brown dwarfs. Synergies with SPHERE (and soon ERIS) exist for the spectral characterization of exoplanet atmospheres and disks, but both JWST and SPHERE also have uniquely accessible parameter space in angular separation and contrast depth. Furthermore, JWST’s unprecedented sensitivity enables the detection of forming planets whose existence has been inferred from dynamical modeling of protoplanetary disks observed with ALMA. At small angular separations, JWST’s interferometric aperture masking mode provides moderate contrast down to the diffraction limit and covers a parameter space overlapping with that of GRAVITY, but at longer wavelengths. Near-infrared K-band data from the ground can be combined with L- and M-band observations from space to study dust clouds and disequilibrium chemistry in exoplanetary and brown dwarf atmospheres. In the future, MICADO and METIS on the E-ELT will push towards smaller separations and higher contrasts in the near-infrared and enable the observation of a small number of nearby and mature Neptunes in thermal emission