No Arabic abstract
We announce the discovery of a low-mass planet orbiting the super metal-rich K0V star HD77338 as part of our on-going Calan-Hertfordshire Extrasolar Planet Search. The best fit planet solution has an orbital period of 5.7361pm0.0015 days and with a radial velocity semi-amplitude of only 5.96pm1.74 m/s, we find a minimum mass of 15.9+4.7-5.3 Me. The best fit eccentricity from this solution is 0.09+0.25-0.09, and we find agreement for this data set using a Bayesian analysis and a periodogram analysis. We measure a metallicity for the star of +0.35pm0.06 dex, whereas another recent work (Trevisan et al. 2011) finds +0.47pm0.05 dex. Thus HD77338b is one of the most metal-rich planet host stars known and the most metal-rich star hosting a sub-Neptune mass planet. We searched for a transit signature of HD77338b but none was detected. We also highlight an emerging trend where metallicity and mass seem to correlate at very low masses, a discovery that would be in agreement with the core accretion model of planet formation. The trend appears to show that for Neptune-mass planets and below, higher masses are preferred when the host star is more metal-rich. Also a lower boundary is apparent in the super metal-rich regime where there are no very low-mass planets yet discovered in comparison to the sub-solar metallicity regime. A Monte Carlo analysis shows that this, low-mass planet desert, is statistically significant with the current sample of 36 planets at around the 4.5sigma level. In addition, results from Kepler strengthen the claim for this paucity of the lowest-mass planets in super metal-rich systems. Finally, this discovery adds to the growing population of low-mass planets around low-mass and metal-rich stars and shows that very low-mass planets can now be discovered with a relatively small number of data points using stable instrumentation.
We report the discovery and initial characterisation of Qatar-1b, a hot Jupiter orbiting a metal-rich K dwarf star, the first planet discovered by the Alsubai Project exoplanet transit survey. We describe the strategy used to select candidate transiting planets from photometry generated by the Alsubai Project instrument. We examine the rate of astrophysical and other false positives found during the spectroscopic reconnaissance of the initial batch of candidates. A simultaneous fit to the follow-up radial velocities and photometry of Qatar-1b yield a planetary mass of 1.09+/-0.08 Mjup and a radius of 1.16+/-0.05 Rjup. The orbital period and separation are 1.420033 days and 0.0234 AU for an orbit assumed to be circular. The stellar density, effective temperature and rotation rate indicate an age greater than 4 Gyr for the system.
We announce the discovery of Kepler-6b, a transiting hot Jupiter orbiting a star with unusually high metallicity, [Fe/H] = +0.34 +/- 0.04. The planets mass is about 2/3 that of Jupiter, Mp = 0.67 Mj, and the radius is thirty percent larger than that of Jupiter, Rp = 1.32 Rj, resulting in a density of 0.35 g/cc, a fairly typical value for such a planet. The orbital period is P = 3.235 days. The host star is both more massive than the Sun, Mstar = 1.21 Msun, and larger than the Sun, Rstar = 1.39 Rsun.
We report the discovery by the HATSouth survey of HATS-4b, an extrasolar planet transiting a V=13.46 mag G star. HATS-4b has a period of P = 2.5167 d, mass of Mp = 1.32 Mj, radius of Rp = 1.02 Rj and density of rho_p = 1.55 +- 0.16 g/cm^3 ~ 1.24 rhoj. The host star has a mass of 1.00 Msun, a radius of 0.92 Rsun and a very high metallicity [Fe/H]= 0.43 +- 0.08. HATS-4b is among the densest known planets with masses between 1-2 Mj and is thus likely to have a significant content of heavy elements of the order of 75 Mearth. In this paper we present the data reduction, radial velocity measurement and stellar classification techniques adopted by the HATSouth survey for the CORALIE spectrograph. We also detail a technique to estimate simultaneously vsini and macroturbulence using high resolution spectra.
At a distance of 1.8 parsecs, Barnards star (Gl 699) is a red dwarf with the largest apparent motion of any known stellar object. It is the closest single star to the Sun, second only to the alpha Centauri triple stellar system. Barnards star is also among the least magnetically active red dwarfs known and has an estimated age older than our Solar System. Its properties have made it a prime target for planet searches employing techniques such as radial velocity, astrometry, and direct imaging, all with different sensitivity limits but ultimately leading to disproved or null results. Here we report that the combination of numerous measurements from high-precision radial velocity instruments reveals the presence of a low-amplitude but significant periodic signal at 233 days. Independent photometric and spectroscopic monitoring, as well as the analysis of instrumental systematic effects, show that this signal is best explained as arising from a planetary companion. The candidate planet around Barnards star is a cold super-Earth with a minimum mass of 3.2 Earth masses orbiting near its snow-line. The combination of all radial velocity datasets spanning 20 years additionally reveals a long-term modulation that could arise from a magnetic activity cycle or from a more distant planetary object. Because of its proximity to the Sun, the proposed planet has a maximum angular separation of 220 milli-arcseconds from Barnards star, making it an excellent target for complementary direct imaging and astrometric observations.
The growing database of exoplanets have shown us the statistical characteristics of various exoplanet populations, providing insight towards their origins. Observational evidence suggests that the process by which gas giants are conceived in the stellar disk may be disparate from that of smaller planets. Using NASAs Exoplanet Archive, we analyzed a correlation between the planet mass and stellar metallicity of low-mass exoplanets (MP < 0.13 MJ) orbiting spectral class G, K, and M stars. The correlation suggests an exponential law relationship between the two that is not fully explained by observation biases alone.