Abstract
AU Mic is a young (22 Myr), nearby exoplanetary system that exhibits excess transit timing variations (TTVs) that cannot be accounted for by the two known transiting planets nor stellar ...activity. We present the statistical “validation” of the tentative planet AU Mic d (even though there are examples of “confirmed” planets with ambiguous orbital periods). We add 18 new transits and nine midpoint times in an updated TTV analysis to prior work. We perform the joint modeling of transit light curves using
EXOFASTv2
and extract the transit midpoint times. Next, we construct an
O
−
C
diagram and use
Exo-Striker
to model the TTVs. We generate TTV log-likelihood periodograms to explore possible solutions for d’s period, then follow those up with detailed TTV and radial velocity Markov Chain Monte Carlo modeling and stability tests. We find several candidate periods for AU Mic d, all of which are near resonances with AU Mic b and c of varying order. Based on our model comparisons, the most-favored orbital period of AU Mic d is 12.73596 ± 0.00793 days (
T
C
,d
= 2458340.55781 ± 0.11641 BJD), which puts the three planets near 4:6:9 mean-motion resonance. The mass for d is 1.053 ± 0.511
M
⊕
, making this planet Earth-like in mass. If confirmed, AU Mic d would be the first known Earth-mass planet orbiting a young star and would provide a valuable opportunity in probing a young terrestrial planet’s atmosphere. Additional TTV observations of the AU Mic system are needed to further constrain the planetary masses, search for possible transits of AU Mic d, and detect possible additional planets beyond AU Mic c.
Abstract
The ∼200,000 targets monitored for photometric variability during the Kepler prime mission include the best-studied group of stars in the sky, due both to the extensive time history provided ...by Kepler and to the substantial amount of ancillary data provided by other investigators or compiled by the Kepler team. To complement this wealth of data, we surveyed the entire Kepler field using the 3.6 and 4.5
μ
m bands of the Warm Spitzer Space Telescope, obtaining photometry in both bands for almost 170,000 objects. We demonstrate relative photometric precision ranging from better than ∼1.5% for the brighter stars down to slightly greater than ∼2% for the faintest stars monitored by Kepler. We describe the data collection and analysis phases of this work and identify several stars with large infrared excess, although none that is also known to be the host of an exoplanetary system. The final catalog resulting from this work will be available at the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
ABSTRACT We present the results of a precise near-infrared (NIR) radial velocity (RV) survey of 32 low-mass stars with spectral types K2-M4 using CSHELL at the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility in the ...K band with an isotopologue methane gas cell to achieve wavelength calibration and a novel, iterative RV extraction method. We surveyed 14 members of young ( 25-150 Myr) moving groups, the young field star Eridani, and 18 nearby (<25 pc) low-mass stars and achieved typical single-measurement precisions of 8-15 m s−1with a long-term stability of 15-50 m s−1 over longer baselines. We obtain the best NIR RV constraints to date on 27 targets in our sample, 19 of which were never followed by high-precision RV surveys. Our results indicate that very active stars can display long-term RV variations as low as ∼25-50 m s−1 at 2.3125 m, thus constraining the effect of jitter at these wavelengths. We provide the first multiwavelength confirmation of GJ 876 bc and independently retrieve orbital parameters consistent with previous studies. We recovered RV variabilities for HD 160934 AB and GJ 725 AB that are consistent with their known binary orbits, and nine other targets are candidate RV variables with a statistical significance of 3 -5 . Our method, combined with the new iSHELL spectrograph, will yield long-term RV precisions of 5 m s−1 in the NIR, which will allow the detection of super-Earths near the habitable zone of mid-M dwarfs.
The MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) is a dedicated observatory of four 0.7 m robotic telescopes fiber-fed to a KiwiSpec spectrograph. The MINERVA mission is to discover ...super-Earths in the habitable zones of nearby stars. This can be accomplished with MINERVA's unique combination of high precision and high cadence over long time periods. In this work, we detail changes to the MINERVA facility that have occurred since our previous paper. We then describe MINERVA's robotic control software, the process by which we perform 1D spectral extraction, and our forward modeling Doppler pipeline. In the process of improving our forward modeling procedure, we found that our spectrograph's intrinsic instrumental profile is stable for at least nine months. Because of that, we characterized our instrumental profile with a time-independent, cubic spline function based on the profile in the cross dispersion direction, with which we achieved a radial velocity precision similar to using a conventional "sum-of-Gaussians" instrumental profile: 1.8 m s−1 over 1.5 months on the RV standard star HD 122064. Therefore, we conclude that the instrumental profile need not be perfectly accurate as long as it is stable. In addition, we observed 51 Peg and our results are consistent with the literature, confirming our spectrograph and Doppler pipeline are producing accurate and precise radial velocities.
The discovery of "hot Jupiters" very close to their parent stars confirmed that Jovian planets migrate inward via several potential mechanisms. We present empirical constraints on planet migration ...halting mechanisms. We compute-model density functions of close-in exoplanets in the orbital semi-major axis-stellar-mass plane to represent planet migration that is halted via several mechanisms, including the interior 1:2 resonance with themagnetospheric disk truncation radius, the interior 1:2 resonance with the dust sublimation radius, and several scenarios for tidal halting. We use a Bayesian analysis to assess the model success in reproducing empirical distributions of confirmed exoplanets and Kepler candidates that orbit interior to 0.1 AU. For Kepler candidates, which have a more restricted range in stellar-mass compared to confirmed planets, we are unable to discern between the tidal dissipation and magnetospheric disk truncation braking mechanisms at a statistically significant level. The power-law model favors exponents in the range of 0.38-0.9. This is larger than that predicted for tidal halting, which suggests that additional physics may be missing in the tidal halting theory.
We present Keck/NIRC2 K sub(s)-band high-contrast coronagraphic imaging of the luminous debris disk around the nearby, young A star HD 32297 resolved at a projected separation of r = 0.''3-2.''5 ( ...approximately 35-280 AU). The disk is highly warped to the north and exhibits a complex, "wavy" surface brightness (SB) profile interior to r approximately 110 AU, where the peaks/plateaus in the profiles are shifted between the NE and SW disk lobes. The SW side of the disk is 50%-100% brighter at r = 35-80 AU, and the location of its peak brightness roughly coincides with the disk's millimeter (mm) emission peak. Spectral energy distribution modeling suggests that HD 32297 has at least two dust populations that may originate from two separate belts, likely at different locations, possibly at distances coinciding with the SB peaks. A disk model for a single dust belt including a phase function with two components and a 5-10 AU pericenter offset explains the disk's warped structure and reproduces some of the SB profile's shape (e.g., the overall "wavy" profile, the SB peak/plateau shifts) but more poorly reproduces the disk's brightness asymmetry and the profile at wider separations (r > 110 AU). Although there may be alternate explanations, agreement between the SW disk brightness peak and disk's peak mm emission is consistent with an overdensity of very small, sub-blowout-sized dust and large, 0.1-1 mm sized grains at approximately 45 AU tracing the same parent population of planetesimals. New near-IR and submillimeter observations may be able to clarify whether even more complex grain scattering properties or dynamical sculpting by an unseen planet are required to explain HD 32297's disk structure.
The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) Orion project is one of the experiments within the broader PTF survey, a systematic automated exploration of the sky for optical transients. Taking advantage of ...the wide (35 X 23) field of view available using the PTF camera installed at the Palomar 48 inch telescope, 40 nights were dedicated in 2009 December to 2010 January to perform continuous high-cadence differential photometry on a single field containing the young (7-10 Myr) 25 Ori association. Little is known empirically about the formation of planets at these young ages, and the primary motivation for the project is to search for planets around young stars in this region. The unique data set also provides for much ancillary science. In this first paper, we describe the survey and the data reduction pipeline, and present some initial results from an inspection of the most clearly varying stars relating to two of the ancillary science objectives: detection of eclipsing binaries and young stellar objects. We find 82 new eclipsing binary systems, 9 of which are good candidate 25 Ori or Orion OB1a association members. Of these, two are potential young W UMa type systems. We report on the possible low-mass (M-dwarf primary) eclipsing systems in the sample, which include six of the candidate young systems. Forty-five of the binary systems are close (mainly contact) systems, and one of these shows an orbital period among the shortest known for W UMa binaries, at 0.2156509 ? 0.0000071 days, with flat-bottomed primary eclipses, and a derived distance that appears consistent with membership in the general Orion association. One of the candidate young systems presents an unusual light curve, perhaps representing a semi-detached binary system with an inflated low-mass primary or a star with a warped disk, and may represent an additional young Orion member. Finally, we identify 14 probable new classical T-Tauri stars in our data, along with one previously known (CVSO 35) and one previously reported as a candidate weak-line T-Tauri star (SDSS J052700.12+010136.8).
Abstract
Stellar active regions, including spots and faculae, can create radial velocity (RV) signals that interfere with the detection and mass measurements of low-mass exoplanets. In doing so, ...these active regions affect each spectral line differently, but the origin of these differences is not fully understood. Here we explore how spectral line variability correlated with S-index (Ca H and K emission) is related to the atomic properties of each spectral line. Next, we develop a simple analytic stellar atmosphere model that can account for the largest sources of line variability with S-index. Then, we apply this model to HARPS spectra of
α
Cen B to explain Fe
i
line depth changes in terms of a disk-averaged temperature difference between active and quiet regions on the visible hemisphere of the star. This work helps establish a physical basis for understanding how stellar activity manifests differently in each spectral line and may help future work mitigating the impact of stellar activity on exoplanet RV surveys.
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