No Arabic abstract
We report the first detection of a planetary transit by spectroscopic measurements. We have detected the distortion of the stellar line profiles during a planetary transit. With the ELODIE spectrograph we took a sequence of high precision radial velocities of the star HD209458 at time of a transit of its planet. We detected an anomaly in the residuals of the orbit. The shape and the amplitude of the anomaly are modeled as a change of the mean stellar line profile resulting from the planet crossing the disk of the rotating star. The planetary orbit is in the same direction as the stellar rotation. Using the photometric transit to constrain the timing and the impact parameters of the transit, we measure an angle alpha=3.9d between the orbital plane and the apparent equatorial plane as well as a vsini=3.75(+-)1.25 kms-1. With additional constrains on the inclination of the star and on the statistics of the line of sight distribution, we can set an upper limit of 30d to the angle between the orbital plane and the stellar equatorial plane.
Most of the known transiting exoplanets are in short-period orbits, largely due to the bias inherent in detecting planets through the transit technique. However, the eccentricity distribution of the known radial velocity planets results in many of those planets having a non-negligible transit probability. One such case is the massive planet orbiting the giant star iota Draconis, a situation where both the orientation of the planets eccentric orbit and the size of the host star inflate the transit probability to a much higher value than for a typical hot Jupiter. Here we present a revised fit of the radial velocity data with new measurements and a photometric analysis of the stellar variability. We provide a revised transit probability, an improved transit ephemeris, and discuss the prospects for observing a transit of this planet from both the ground and space.
A 4MJ planet with a 15.8day orbital period has been detected from very precise radial velocity measurements with the CORALIE echelle spectrograph. A second remote and more massive companion has also been detected. All the planetary companions so far detected in orbit closer than 0.08 AU have a parent star with a statistically higher metal content compared to the metallicity distribution of other stars with planets. Different processes occuring during their formation may provide a possible explanation for this observation.
The Kepler Mission is monitoring the brightness of ~150,000 stars searching for evidence of planetary transits. As part of the Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler (HEK) project, we report a planetary system with two confirmed planets and one candidate planet discovered using the publicly available data for KOI-872. Planet b transits the host star with a period P_b=33.6d and exhibits large transit timing variations indicative of a perturber. Dynamical modeling uniquely detects an outer nontransiting planet c near the 5:3 resonance (P_c=57.0d) of mass 0.37 times that of Jupiter. Transits of a third planetary candidate are also found: a 1.7-Earth radius super-Earth with a 6.8d period. Our analysis indicates a system with nearly coplanar and circular orbits, reminiscent of the orderly arrangement within the solar system.
In this paper, we report a refined determination of the orbital parameters and the detection of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect of the recently discovered transiting exoplanet HD147506b (HAT-P-2b). The large orbital eccentricity at the short orbital period of this exoplanet is unexpected and is distinguishing from other known transiting exoplanets. We performed high-precision radial velocity spectroscopic observations of HD147506 (HAT-P-2) with the new spectrograph SOPHIE, mounted on the 1.93 m telescope at the Haute-Provence observatory (OHP). We obtained 63 new measurements, including 35 on May 14 and 20 on June 11, when the planet was transiting its parent star. The radial velocity (RV) anomaly observed illustrates that HAT-P-2b orbital motion is set in the same direction as its parent star spin. The sky-projected angle between the normal of the orbital plane and the stellar spin axis, lambda = 0.2 +12.2 -12.5 deg, is consistent with zero. The planetary and stellar radii were re-determined, yielding R_p = 0.951 +0.039 -0.053 R_Jup, R_s = 1.416 +0.040 -0.062 R_Sun. The mass M_p = 8.62 +0.39 -0.55 M_Jup and radius of HAT-P-2b indicate a density of 12.5 +2.6 -3.6 g cm^{-3}, suggesting an object in between the known close-in planets with typical density of the order of 1 g cm^{-3}, and the very low-mass stars, with density greater than 50 g cm^{-3}.
We perform a detailed characterization of the planetary system orbiting the bright, nearby M dwarf Gliese 411 using radial velocities gathered by APF, HIRES, SOPHIE, and CARMENES. We confirm the presence of a signal with a period near $2900$ days that has been disputed as either a planet or long-period stellar magnetic cycle. An analysis of activity metrics including $mathrm{H_alpha}$ and $mathrm{logR_{HK}}$ indices supports the interpretation that the signal corresponds to a Neptune-mass planet, GJ 411 c. An additional signal near $215$ days was previously dismissed as an instrumental systematic, but our analysis shows that a planetary origin cannot be ruled out. With a semi-major axis of $0.5141pm0.0038$ AU, this candidates orbit falls between those of its companions and skirts the outer edge of the habitable zone. It has a minimum mass of $4.1pm0.6$ $M_oplus$, giving a radial velocity amplitude of $0.83pm0.12$ $mathrm{m,s^{-1}}$. If confirmed, this would be one of the lowest-amplitude planet detections from any of these four instruments. Our analysis of the joint radial velocity data set also provides tighter constraints on the orbital parameters for the previously known planets. Photometric data from $it{TESS}$ does not show any signs of a transit event. However, the outermost planet and candidate are prime targets for future direct imaging missions and GJ 411 c may be detectable via astrometry.