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TheβPictoris system is the closest known stellar system with directly detected gas giant planets, an edge-on circumstellar disc, and evidence of falling sublimating bodies and transiting exocomets. The inner planet,βPictoris c, has also been indirectly detected with radial velocity (RV) measurements. The star is a knownδScuti pulsator, and the long-term stability of these pulsations opens up the possibility of indirectly detecting the gas giant planets through time delays of the pulsations due to a varying light travel time. We search for phase shifts in theδScuti pulsations consistent with the known planetsβPictoris b and c and carry out an analysis of the stellar pulsations ofβPictoris over a multi-year timescale. We used photometric data collected by the BRITE-Constellation, bRing, ASTEP, and TESS to derive a list of the strongest and most significantδScuti pulsations. We carried out an analysis with the open-source python package maelstrom to study the stability of the pulsation modes ofβPictoris in order to determine the long-term trends in the observed pulsations. We did not detect the expected signal forβPictoris b orβPictoris c. The expected time delay is 6 s forβPictoris c and 24 s forβPictoris b. With simulations, we determined that the photometric noise in all the combined data sets cannot reach the sensitivity needed to detect the expected timing drifts. An analysis of the pulsational modes ofβPictoris using maelstrom showed that the modes themselves drift on the timescale of a year, fundamentally limiting our ability to detect exoplanets aroundβPictoris via pulsation timing. 

Abstract A complete accounting of nearby objects—from the highest-mass white dwarf progenitors down to low-mass brown dwarfs—is now possible, thanks to an almost complete set of trigonometric parallax determinations from Gaia, ground-based surveys, and Spitzer follow-up. We create a census of objects within a Sun-centered sphere of 20 pc radius and check published literature to decompose each binary or higher-order system into its separate components. The result is a volume-limited census of ∼3600individualstar formation products useful in measuring the initial mass function across the stellar (<8M_⊙) and substellar (≳5M_Jup) regimes. Comparing our resulting initial mass function to previous measurements shows good agreement above 0.8M_⊙and a divergence at lower masses. Our 20 pc space densities are best fit with a quadripartite power law, $\xi \left(M\right)=\mathit{dN}/\mathit{dM}\propto M^{-\alpha }$, with long-established values ofα= 2.3 at high masses (0.55 <M< 8.00M_⊙), andα= 1.3 at intermediate masses (0.22 <M< 0.55M_⊙), but at lower masses, we findα= 0.25 for 0.05 <M< 0.22M_⊙, andα= 0.6 for 0.01 <M< 0.05M_⊙. This implies that the rate of production as a function of decreasing mass diminishes in the low-mass star/high-mass brown dwarf regime before increasing again in the low-mass brown dwarf regime. Correcting for completeness, we find a star to brown dwarf number ratio of, currently, 4:1, and an average mass per object of 0.41M_⊙. 

Abstract Mature super-Earths and sub-Neptunes are predicted to be ≃ Jovian radius when younger than 10 Myr. Thus, we expect to find 5–15R_⊕planets around young stars even if their older counterparts harbor none. We report the discovery and validation of TOI 1227b, a 0.85 ± 0.05R_J(9.5R_⊕) planet transiting a very-low-mass star (0.170 ± 0.015M_⊙) every 27.4 days. TOI 1227's kinematics and strong lithium absorption confirm that it is a member of a previously discovered subgroup in the Lower Centaurus Crux OB association, which we designate the Musca group. We derive an age of 11 ± 2 Myr for Musca, based on lithium, rotation, and the color–magnitude diagram of Musca members. The TESS data and ground-based follow-up show a deep (2.5%) transit. We use multiwavelength transit observations and radial velocities from the IGRINS spectrograph to validate the signal as planetary in nature, and we obtain an upper limit on the planet mass of ≃0.5M_J. Because such large planets are exceptionally rare around mature low-mass stars, we suggest that TOI 1227b is still contracting and will eventually turn into one of the more common <5R_⊕planets.