Doppler spectroscopy has uncovered or confirmed all the known planets orbiting nearby stars. Two main techniques are used to obtain precision Doppler measurements at optical wavelengths. The first ...approach is the gas cell method, which consists of least-squares matching of the spectrum of iodine imprinted on the spectrum of the star. The second method relies on the construction of a stabilized spectrograph externally calibrated in wavelength. The most precise stabilized spectrometer in operation is the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), operated by the European Southern Observatory in La Silla Observatory, Chile. The Doppler measurements obtained with HARPS are typically obtained using the cross-correlation function (CCF) technique. This technique consists of multiplying the stellar spectrum by a weighted binary mask and finding the minimum of the product as a function of the Doppler shift. It is known that CCF is suboptimal in exploiting the Doppler information in the stellar spectrum. Here we describe an algorithm to obtain precision radial velocity measurements using least-squares matching of each observed spectrum to a high signal-to-noise ratio template derived from the same observations. This algorithm is implemented in our software HARPS-TERRA (Template-Enhanced Radial velocity Re-analysis Application). New radial velocity measurements on a representative sample of stars observed by HARPS are used to illustrate the benefits of the proposed method. We show that, compared with CCF, template matching provides a significant improvement in accuracy, especially when applied to M dwarfs.
Radial velocity monitoring has found the signature of a M sin i = 1.3 M(sub ⨁) planet located within the habitable zone (HZ) of Proxima Centauri. Despite a hotter past and an active host star, the ...planet Proxima b could have retained enough volatiles to sustain surface habitability. Here we use a 3D Global Climate Model (GCM) to simulate the atmosphere and water cycle of Proxima b for its two likely rotation modes (1:1 and 3:2 spin-orbit resonances), while varying the unconstrained surface water inventory and atmospheric greenhouse effect. Any low-obliquity, low-eccentricity planet within the HZ of its star should be in one of the climate regimes discussed here. We find that a broad range of atmospheric compositions allow surface liquid water. On a tidally locked planet with sufficient surface water inventory, liquid water is always present, at least in the substellar region. With a non-synchronous rotation, this requires a minimum greenhouse warming (~10 mbar of CO2 and 1 bar of N2). If the planet is dryer, ~0.5 bar or 1.5 bars of CO2 (for asynchronous or synchronous rotation, respectively) suffice to prevent the trapping of any arbitrary, small water inventory into polar or nightside ice caps. We produce reflection and emission spectra and phase curves for the simulated climates. We find that atmospheric characterization will be possible via direct imaging with forthcoming large telescopes. The angular separation of 7 λ/D at 1 μm (with the E-ELT) and a contrast of ~10(exp -7) will enable high-resolution spectroscopy and the search for molecular signatures, including H2O, O2, and CO2. The observation of thermal phase curves can be attempted with the James Webb Space Telescope, thanks to a contrast of 2 × 10(exp -5) at 10 μm. Proxima b will also be an exceptional target for future IR interferometers. Within a decade it will be possible to image Proxima b and possibly determine whether the surface of this exoplanet is habitable.
Proxima b is a planet with a minimum mass of 1.3 M(sub ⨁) orbiting within the habitable zone (HZ) of Proxima Centauri, a very low-mass, active star and the Sun’s closest neighbor. Here we investigate ...a number of factors related to the potential habitability of Proxima b and its ability to maintain liquid water on its surface. We set the stage by estimating the current high-energy irradiance of the planet and show that the planet currently receives 30 times more extreme-UV radiation than Earth and 250 times more X-rays. We compute the time evolution of the star’s spectrum, which is essential for modeling the flux received over Proxima b’s lifetime. We also show that Proxima b’s obliquity is likely null, and its spin is either synchronous or in a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance, depending on the planet’s eccentricity and level of triaxiality. Next, we consider the evolution of Proxima b’s water inventory. We use our spectral energy distribution to compute the hydrogen loss from the planet with an improved energy-limited escape formalism. Despite the high level of stellar activity, we find that Proxima b is likely to have lost less than an Earth ocean’s worth of hydrogen (EO(sub H)) before it reached the HZ 100–200 Myr after its formation. The largest uncertainty in our work is the initial water budget, which is not constrained by planet formation models. We conclude that Proxima b is a viable candidate habitable planet.
Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun, is known to host at least one terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit. Here we report the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) ...detection of the star at 1.3 mm wavelength and the discovery of a belt of dust orbiting around it at distances ranging between 1 and 4 au, approximately. Given the low luminosity of the Proxima Centauri star, we estimate a characteristic temperature of about 40 K for this dust, which might constitute the dust component of a small-scale analog to our solar system's Kuiper Belt. The estimated total mass, including dust and bodies up to 50 km in size, is of the order of 0.01 Earth masses, which is similar to that of the solar Kuiper Belt. Our data also show a hint of warmer dust closer to the star. We also find signs of two additional features that might be associated with the Proxima Centauri system that still require further observations to be confirmed: an outer extremely cold (about 10 K) belt around the star at about 30 au, with an orbital plane that is tilted about 45° with respect to the plane of the sky; additionally, we marginally detect a compact 1.3 mm emission source at a projected distance of about 1.2 arcsec from the star, the nature of which is still unknown.
Abstract
We report individual dynamical masses for the brown dwarfs
ε
Indi B and C, which have spectral types of T1.5 and T6, respectively, measured from astrometric orbit mapping. Our measurements ...are based on a joint analysis of astrometric data from the Carnegie Astrometric Planet Search and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Parallax Investigation, as well as archival high-resolution imaging, and use a Markov chain Monte Carlo method. We find dynamical masses of 75.0 ± 0.82
M
Jup
for the T1.5 B component and 70.1 ± 0.68
M
Jup
for the T6 C component. These masses are surprisingly high for such cool objects and challenge our understanding of substellar structure and evolution. We discuss several evolutionary scenarios proposed in the literature and find that while none of them can provide conclusive explanations for the high substellar masses, evolutionary models incorporating lower atmospheric opacities come closer to approximating our results. We discuss the details of our astrometric model, its algorithm implementation, and how we determine parameter values via Markov chain Monte Carlo Bayesian inference.
K2-18 is a nearby M2.5 dwarf, located at 34 pc and hosting a transiting planet that was first discovered by the K2 mission and later confirmed with Spitzer Space Telescope observations. With a radius ...of ∼2 R⊕ and an orbital period of ∼33 days, the planet lies in the temperate zone of its host star and receives stellar irradiation similar to that of Earth. Here we perform radial velocity follow-up observations with the visual channel of CARMENES with the goal of determining the mass and density of the planet. We measure a planetary semi-amplitude of Kb ∼ 3.5 and a mass of Mb ∼ 9 M⊕, yielding a bulk density around . This indicates a low-mass planet with a composition consistent with a solid core and a volatile-rich envelope. A signal at 9 days was recently reported using radial velocity measurements taken with the HARPS spectrograph. This was interpreted as being due to a second planet. We see a weaker, time- and wavelength-dependent signal in the CARMENES data set and thus favor stellar activity for its origin. K2-18 b joins the growing group of low-mass planets detected in the temperate zone of M dwarfs. The brightness of the host star in the near-infrared makes the system a good target for detailed atmospheric studies with the James Webb Space Telescope.
We report parallax measurements for 70 ultracool dwarfs (UCDs) including 11 late-M, 32 L, and 27 T dwarfs. In this sample, 14 M and L dwarfs exhibit low surface gravity features, 6 are close binary ...systems, and 2 are metal-poor subdwarfs. We combined our new measurements with 114 previously published UCD parallaxes and optical-mid-IR photometry to examine trends in spectral-type/absolute magnitude, and color-color diagrams. We report new polynomial relations between spectral type and M sub(JHK). Including resolved L/T transition binaries in the relations, we find no reason to differentiate between a "bright" (unresolved binary) and a "faint" (single source) sample across the L/T boundary. Isolating early T dwarfs, we find that the brightening of T0-T4 sources is prominent in M sub(J) where there is a 1.2-1.4 mag difference. A similar yet dampened brightening of 0.3-0.5 mag happens at M sub(H) and a plateau or dimming of -0.2 to -0.3 mag is seen in M sub(K). Comparison with evolutionary models that vary gravity, metallicity, and cloud thickness verifies that for L into T dwarfs, decreasing cloud thickness reproduces brown dwarf near-IR color-magnitude diagrams. However we find that a near constant temperature of 1200 + or -100 K along a narrow spectral subtype of T0-T4 is required to account for the brightening and color-magnitude diagram of the L-dwarf/T-dwarf transition. There is a significant population of both L and T dwarfs which are red or potentially "ultra-cloudy" compared to the models, many of which are known to be young indicating a correlation between enhanced photospheric dust and youth. For the low surface gravity or young companion L dwarfs we find that 8 out of 10 are at least 0.2-1.0mag underluminous in M sub(JH) and/or M sub(K) compared to equivalent spectral type objects. We speculate that this is a consequence of increased dust opacity and conclude that low surface gravity L dwarfs require a completely new spectral-type/absolute magnitude polynomial for analysis.
Our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, hosts a temperate terrestrial planet. We detected in radial velocities evidence of a possible second planet with minimum mass
sin
= 5.8 ± 1.9
and orbital ...period
years. The analysis of photometric data and spectro-scopic activity diagnostics does not explain the signal in terms of a stellar activity cycle, but follow-up is required in the coming years for confirming its planetary origin. We show that the existence of the planet can be ascertained, and its true mass can be determined with high accuracy, by combining Gaia astrometry and radial velocities. Proxima c could become a prime target for follow-up and characterization with next-generation direct imaging instrumentation due to the large maximum angular separation of ~1 arc second from the parent star. The candidate planet represents a challenge for the models of super-Earth formation and evolution.
Abstract
As part of our massive spectroscopic survey of 25 Galactic globular clusters with MUSE, we performed multiple epoch observations of NGC 3201 with the aim of constraining the binary fraction. ...In this cluster, we found one curious star at the main-sequence turn-off with radial velocity variations of the order of 100 km s− 1, indicating the membership to a binary system with an unseen component since no other variations appear in the spectra. Using an adapted variant of the generalized Lomb–Scargle periodogram, we could calculate the orbital parameters and found the companion to be a detached stellar-mass black hole with a minimum mass of 4.36 ± 0.41 M⊙. The result is an important constraint for binary and black hole evolution models in globular clusters as well as in the context of gravitational wave sources.
Context. Since low-mass stars have low luminosities, orbits at which liquid water can exist on Earth-sized planets are relatively close-in, which produces Doppler signals that are detectable using ...state-of-the-art Doppler spectroscopy. Aims. GJ 667C is already known to be orbited by two super-Earth candidates. We have recently applied developed data analysis methods to investigate whether the data supports the presence of additional companions. Methods. We obtain new Doppler measurements from HARPS extracted spectra and combined them with those obtained from the PFS and HIRES spectrographs. We used Bayesian and periodogram-based methods to re-assess the number of candidates and evaluated the confidence of each detection. Among other tests, we validated the planet candidates by analyzing correlations of each Doppler signal with measurements of several activity indices and investigated the possible quasi-periodic nature of signals. Results. Doppler measurements of GJ 667C are described better by six (even seven) Keplerian-like signals: the two known candidates (b and c); three additional few-Earth mass candidates with periods of 92, 62, and 39 days (d, e and f); a cold super-Earth in a 260-day orbit (g) and tantalizing evidence of a ~1 M⊕ object in a close-in orbit of 17 days (h). We explore whether long-term stable orbits are compatible with the data by integrating 8 × 104 solutions derived from the Bayesian samplings. We assess their stability using secular frequency analysis. Conclusions. The system consisting of six planets is compatible with dynamically stable configurations. As for the solar system, the most stable solutions do not contain mean-motion resonances and are described well by analytic Laplace-Lagrange solutions. Preliminary analysis also indicates that masses of the planets cannot be higher than twice the minimum masses obtained from Doppler measurements. The presence of a seventh planet (h) is supported by the fact that it appears squarely centered on the only island of stability left in the six-planet solution. Habitability assessments accounting for the stellar flux, as well as tidal dissipation effects, indicate that three (maybe four) planets are potentially habitable. Doppler and space-based transit surveys indicate that 1) dynamically packed systems of super-Earths are relatively abundant and 2) M-dwarfs have more small planets than earlier-type stars. These two trends together suggest that GJ 667C is one of the first members of an emerging population of M-stars with multiple low-mass planets in their habitable zones.
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