Planets in a different light: the potential of direct imaging in the mid-infrared

Over one hundred planets have been discovered through direct imaging in the near infrared. However, most planets with known temperatures are hot and emit most of their flux in the mid-IR. Imaging at longer wavelengths could help us put stringent constraints on planet's radii, temperatures and chemical compositions and distinguish between cloudy and clear atmospheres. Additionally, for very young systems circumplanetary disks are expected to be bright in the mid-IR. They could make planets down to a few Jupiter masses visible and provide constraints on planetary formation. In this contribution, we present the most sensitive mid-IR observations to date of young exoplanet systems using VISIR and NEAR, and discuss the implications of these non-detections for models of young circumplanetary disks. We also discuss the exciting prospect of detecting young exoplanets with METIS on the ELT, and the constraints on exoplanet atmospheres that can be derived with this new data.