No Arabic abstract
In an earlier campaign to characterize the mass of the transiting temperate super-Earth K2-18b with HARPS, a second, non-transiting planet was posited to exist in the system at $sim 9$ days. Further radial velocity follow-up with the CARMENES spectrograph visible channel revealed a much weaker signal at 9 days which also appeared to vary chromatically and temporally leading to the conclusion that the origin of the 9 day signal was more likely to be related to stellar activity than to being planetary. Here we conduct a detailed re-analysis of all available RV time-series, including a set of 31 previously unpublished HARPS measurements, to investigate the effects of time-sampling and of simultaneous modelling of planetary + activity signals on the existence and origin of the curious 9 day signal. We conclude that the 9 day signal is real and was initially seen to be suppressed in the CARMENES data due to a small number of anomalous measurements, although the exact cause of these anomalies remains unknown. Investigation of the signals evolution in time, with wavelength, and detailed model comparison reveals that the 9 day signal is most likely planetary in nature. By this analysis, we reconcile the conflicting HARPS and CARMENES results and measure precise and self-consistent planet masses of $m_{p,b} = 8.63 pm 1.35$ and $m_{p,c}sin{i_c}=5.62 pm 0.84$ M$_{oplus}$. This work, along with the previously published RV papers on the K2-18 planetary system, highlight the importance of understanding ones time-sampling and of simultaneous planet + stochastic activity modelling, particularly when searching for sub-Neptune-sized planets with radial velocities.
We present a detailed analysis of HARPS-N radial velocity observations of K2-100, a young and active star in the Praesepe cluster, which hosts a transiting planet with a period of 1.7 days. We model the activity-induced radial velocity variations of the host star with a multi-dimensional Gaussian Process framework and detect a planetary signal of $10.6 pm 3.0 {rm m,s^{-1}}$, which matches the transit ephemeris, and translates to a planet mass of $21.8 pm 6.2 M_oplus$. We perform a suite of validation tests to confirm that our detected signal is genuine. This is the first mass measurement for a transiting planet in a young open cluster. The relatively low density of the planet, $2.04^{+0.66}_{-0.61} {rm g,cm^{-3}}$, implies that K2-100b retains a significant volatile envelope. We estimate that the planet is losing its atmosphere at a rate of $10^{11}-10^{12},{rm g,s^{-1}}$ due to the high level of radiation it receives from its host star.
Methods used to detect giant exoplanets can be broadly divided into two categories: indirect and direct. Indirect methods are more sensitive to planets with a small orbital period, whereas direct detection is more sensitive to planets orbiting at a large distance from their host star. %, and thus on long orbital period. This dichotomy makes it difficult to combine the two techniques on a single target at once. Simultaneous measurements made by direct and indirect techniques offer the possibility of determining the mass and luminosity of planets and a method of testing formation models. Here, we aim to show how long-baseline interferometric observations guided by radial-velocity can be used in such a way. We observed the recently-discovered giant planet $beta$ Pictoris c with GRAVITY, mounted on the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). This study constitutes the first direct confirmation of a planet discovered through radial velocity. We find that the planet has a temperature of $T = 1250pm50$,K and a dynamical mass of $M = 8.2pm0.8,M_{rm Jup}$. At $18.5pm2.5$,Myr, this puts $beta$ Pic c close to a hot start track, which is usually associated with formation via disk instability. Conversely, the planet orbits at a distance of 2.7,au, which is too close for disk instability to occur. The low apparent magnitude ($M_{rm K} = 14.3 pm 0.1$) favours a core accretion scenario. We suggest that this apparent contradiction is a sign of hot core accretion, for example, due to the mass of the planetary core or the existence of a high-temperature accretion shock during formation.
The star Kepler-1625 recently attracted considerable attention when an analysis of the stellar photometric time series from the Kepler mission was interpreted as showing evidence of a large exomoon around the transiting Jupiter-sized planet candidate Kepler-1625b. We aim to detect the radial velocity (RV) signal imposed by Kepler-1625b (and its putative moon) on the host star or, as the case may be, determine an upper limit on the mass of the transiting object. We took a total of 22 spectra of Kepler-1625 using CARMENES, 20 of which were useful. Observations were spread over a total of seven nights between October 2017 and October 2018, covering $125%$ of one full orbit of Kepler-1625b. We used the automatic Spectral Radial Velocity Analyser (SERVAL) pipeline to deduce the stellar RVs and uncertainties. Then we fitted the RV curve model of a single planet on a Keplerian orbit to the observed RVs using a $chi^2$ minimisation procedure. We derive upper limits on the mass of Kepler-1625b under the assumption of a single planet on a circular orbit. In this scenario, the $1,sigma$, $2,sigma$, and $3,sigma$ confidence upper limits for the mass of Kepler-1625b are $2.90,M_{rm J}$, $7.15,M_{rm J}$, and $11.60,M_{rm J}$, respectively. We present strong evidence for the planetary nature of Kepler-1625b, making it the 10th most long-period confirmed planet known today. Our data does not answer the question about a second, possibly more short-period planet that could be responsible for the observed transit timing variation of Kepler-1625b.
The Dharma Planet Survey (DPS) aims to monitor about 150 nearby very bright FGKM dwarfs (within 50 pc) during 2016$-$2020 for low-mass planet detection and characterization using the TOU very high resolution optical spectrograph (R$approx$100,000, 380-900nm). TOU was initially mounted to the 2-m Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope at Fairborn Observatory in 2013-2015 to conduct a pilot survey, then moved to the dedicated 50-inch automatic telescope on Mt. Lemmon in 2016 to launch the survey. Here we report the first planet detection from DPS, a super-Earth candidate orbiting a bright K dwarf star, HD 26965. It is the second brightest star ($V=4.4$ mag) on the sky with a super-Earth candidate. The planet candidate has a mass of 8.47$pm0.47M_{rm Earth}$, period of $42.38pm0.01$ d, and eccentricity of $0.04^{+0.05}_{-0.03}$. This RV signal was independently detected by Diaz et al. (2018), but they could not confirm if the signal is from a planet or from stellar activity. The orbital period of the planet is close to the rotation period of the star (39$-$44.5 d) measured from stellar activity indicators. Our high precision photometric campaign and line bisector analysis of this star do not find any significant variations at the orbital period. Stellar RV jitters modeled from star spots and convection inhibition are also not strong enough to explain the RV signal detected. After further comparing RV data from the stars active magnetic phase and quiet magnetic phase, we conclude that the RV signal is due to planetary-reflex motion and not stellar activity.
Radial Velocity follow-up is essential to establish or exclude the planetary nature of a transiting companion as well as to accurately determine its mass. Here we present some elements of an efficient Doppler follow-up strategy, based on high-resolution spectroscopy, devoted to the characterization of transiting candidates. Some aspects and results of the radial velocity follow-up of the CoRoT space mission are presented in order to illustrate the strategy used to deal with the zoo of transiting candidates.