154 research outputs found
Understanding Super-Earths with MINERVA-Australis at USQ's Mount Kent Observatory
Super Earths, planets between 5-10 Earth masses, are the most common type of
exoplanet known, yet are completely absent from our Solar system. As a result,
their detailed properties, compositions, and formation mechanisms are poorly
understood. NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will identify
hundreds of Super-Earths orbiting bright stars, for the first time allowing
in-depth characterisation of these planets. At the University of Southern
Queensland, we are host to the MINERVA-Australis project, dedicated wholly to
the follow-up characterisation and mass measurement of TESS planets. We give an
update on the status of MINERVA-Australis and our expected performance.Comment: Accepted to appear in the peer-reviewed proceedings of the 17th
Australian Space Research Conference, held at the University of Sydney,
13th-15th November, 201
Ariel - Volume 12(13) Number 2
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High eccentricity planets from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search
We report Doppler measurements of the stars HD187085 and HD20782 which
indicate two high eccentricity low-mass companions to the stars. We find
HD187085 has a Jupiter-mass companion with a ~1000d orbit. Our formal `best
fit' solution suggests an eccentricity of 0.47, however, it does not sample the
periastron passage of the companion and we find that orbital solutions with
eccentricities between 0.1 and 0.8 give only slightly poorer fits (based on RMS
and chi^2) and are thus plausible. Observations made during periastron passage
in 2007 June should allow for the reliable determination of the orbital
eccentricity for the companion to HD187085. Our dataset for HD20782 does sample
periastron and so the orbit for its companion can be more reliably determined.
We find the companion to HD20782 has M sin i=1.77+/-0.22M_JUP, an orbital
period of 595.86+/-0.03d and an orbit with an eccentricity of 0.92+/-0.03. The
detection of such high-eccentricity (and relatively low velocity amplitude)
exoplanets appears to be facilitated by the long-term precision of the
Anglo-Australian Planet Search. Looking at exoplanet detections as a whole, we
find that those with higher eccentricity seem to have relatively higher
velocity amplitudes indicating higher mass planets and/or an observational bias
against the detection of high eccentricity systems.Comment: to appear in MNRA
On the Double Planet System Around HD 83443
The Geneva group has reported two Saturn-mass planets orbiting HD 83443 (K0V)
with periods of 2.98 and 29.8 d. The two planets have raised interest in their
dynamics because of the possible 10:1 orbital resonance and the strong
gravitational interactions. We report precise Doppler measurements of HD 83443
obtained with the Keck/HIRES and the AAT/UCLES spectrometers. These
measurements strongly confirm the inner planet with period of 2.985 d, with
orbital parameters in very good agreement with those of the Geneva group.
However these Doppler measurements show no evidence of the outer planet, at
thresholds of 1/4 (3 m/s) of the reported velocity amplitude of 13.8 m/s. Thus,
the existence of the outer planet is in question. Indeed, the current Doppler
measurements reveal no evidence of any second planet with periods less than a
year.Comment: 26 pages incl. 3 tables and 8 figures; uses AASTE
Detection of Planetary and Stellar Companions to Neighboring Stars via a Combination of Radial Velocity and Direct Imaging Techniques
13 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal (submitted 25 Feb 2019; accepted 28 April 2019). Machine readable tables and Posteriors from the RadVel fits are available here: http://stephenkane.net/rvfits.tarThe sensitivities of radial velocity (RV) surveys for exoplanet detection are extending to increasingly longer orbital periods, where companions with periods of several years are now being regularly discovered. Companions with orbital periods that exceed the duration of the survey manifest in the data as an incomplete orbit or linear trend, a feature that can either present as the sole detectable companion to the host star, or as an additional signal overlain on the signatures of previously discovered companion(s). A diagnostic that can confirm or constrain scenarios in which the trend is caused by an unseen stellar rather than planetary companion is the use of high-contrast imaging observations. Here, we present RV data from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search (AAPS) for 20 stars that show evidence of orbiting companions. Of these, six companions have resolved orbits, with three that lie in the planetary regime. Two of these (HD 92987b and HD 221420b) are new discoveries. Follow-up observations using the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI) on the Gemini South telescope revealed that 5 of the 20 monitored companions are likely stellar in nature. We use the sensitivity of the AAPS and DSSI data to place constraints on the mass of the companions for the remaining systems. Our analysis shows that a planetary-mass companion provides the most likely self-consistent explanation of the data for many of the remaining systems.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
Two extra-solar planets from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search
We report the detection of two new extra-solar planets from the
Anglo-Australian Planet Search around the stars HD142 and HD23079. The planet
orbiting HD142 has an orbital period of just under one year, while that
orbiting HD23079 has a period of just under two years. HD142 falls into the
class of "eccentric" gas giants. HD23079 lies in the recently uncovered class
of "epsilon Ret-like" planets - extra-solar gas giant planets with
near-circular orbits outside 0.1 a.u. The recent discovery of several more
members of this class provides new impetus for the extension of existing planet
searches to longer periods, in the search for Jupiter-like planets in
Jupiter-like orbits.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures and 3 tables include
Astrocladistics of the Jovian Trojan swarms
The Jovian Trojans are two swarms of small objects that share Jupiter's orbit, clustered around the leading and trailing Lagrange points, L4 and L5. In this work, we investigate the Jovian Trojan population using the technique of astrocladistics, an adaptation of the 'tree of life' approach used in biology. We combine colour data from WISE, SDSS, Gaia DR2, and MOVIS surveys with knowledge of the physical and orbital characteristics of the Trojans, to generate a classification tree composed of clans with distinctive characteristics. We identify 48 clans, indicating groups of objects that possibly share a common origin. Amongst these are several that contain members of the known collisional families, though our work identifies subtleties in that classification that bear future investigation. Our clans are often broken into subclans, and most can be grouped into 10 superclans, reflecting the hierarchical nature of the population. Outcomes from this project include the identification of several high priority objects for additional observations and as well as providing context for the objects to be visited by the forthcoming Lucy mission. Our results demonstrate the ability of astrocladistics to classify multiple large and heterogeneous composite survey data sets into groupings useful for studies of the origins and evolution of our Solar system
A Super-Earth and Two Neptunes Orbiting the Nearby Sun-like Star 61 Virginis
We present precision radial velocity data that reveal a multiple exoplanet system orbiting the bright nearby G5V star 61 Virginis. Our 4.6 years of combined Keck/HIRES and Anglo-Australian Telescope precision radial velocities indicate the hitherto unknown presence of at least three planets orbiting this well-studied star. These planets are all on low-eccentricity orbits with periods of 4.2, 38.0, and 124.0 days, and projected masses (Msin i) of 5.1, 18.2, and 24.0 M_â, respectively. Test integrations of systems consistent with the radial velocity data suggest that the configuration is dynamically stable. Depending on the effectiveness of tidal dissipation within the inner planet, the inner two planets may have evolved into an eccentricity fixed-point configuration in which the apsidal lines of all three planets corotate. This conjecture can be tested with additional observations. We present a 16-year time series of photometric observations of 61 Virginis, which comprise 1194 individual measurements, and indicate that it has excellent photometric stability. No significant photometric variations at the periods of the proposed planets have been detected. This new system is the first known example of a G-type Sun-like star hosting a Super-Earth mass planet. It joins HD 75732 (55 Cnc), HD 69830, GJ 581, HD 40307, and GJ 876 in a growing group of exoplanet systems that have multiple planets orbiting with periods less than an Earth-year. The ubiquity of such systems portends that space-based transit-search missions such as Kepler and CoRoT will find many multi-transiting systems
KELT-10b: The First Transiting Exoplanet from the KELT-South Survey -- A Hot Sub-Jupiter Transiting a V = 10.7 Early G-Star
We report the discovery of KELT-10b, the first transiting exoplanet
discovered using the KELT-South telescope. KELT-10b is a highly inflated
sub-Jupiter mass planet transiting a relatively bright star (TYC
8378-64-1), with T = K, =
and [Fe/H] = , an inferred mass
M = M and radius R =
R. The planet has a radius R =
R and mass M =
M. The planet has an eccentricity consistent with zero and a semi-major
axis = AU. The best fitting linear
ephemeris is = 2457066.720450.00027 BJD and P =
4.16627390.0000063 days. This planet joins a group of highly inflated
transiting exoplanets with a radius much larger and a mass much less than those
of Jupiter. The planet, which boasts deep transits of 1.4%, has a relatively
high equilibrium temperature of T = K, assuming zero
albedo and perfect heat redistribution. KELT-10b receives an estimated
insolation of 10 erg s cm,
which places it far above the insolation threshold above which hot Jupiters
exhibit increasing amounts of radius inflation. Evolutionary analysis of the
host star suggests that KELT-10b is unlikely to survive beyond the current
subgiant phase, due to a concomitant in-spiral of the planet over the next
1 Gyr. The planet transits a relatively bright star and exhibits the
third largest transit depth of all transiting exoplanets with V 11 in the
southern hemisphere, making it a promising candidate for future atmospheric
characterization studies.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA
A Neptune-mass Planet Orbiting the Nearby G Dwarf HD16417
Precision Doppler measurements from an intensive 48 night "Rocky Planet
Search" observing campaign on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) have
revealed the presence of a low-mass exoplanet orbiting the G1 dwarf HD16417.
Subsequent Doppler observations with the AAT, as well as independent
observations obtained by the Keck Planet Search, have confirmed this initial
detection and refine the orbital parameters to period 17.24+/-0.01 d,
eccentricity 0.20+/-0.09, orbital semi-major axis 0.14+/-0.01 AU and minimum
planet mass 22.1+/-2.0 Mearth. HD 16417 raises the number of published
exoplanets with minimum masses of less than 25 Mearth to eighteen.
Interestingly, the distribution of detected sub-25 Mearth planets over the
spectral types G, K and M is almost uniform. The detection of HD 16417b by an
intensive observing campaign clearly demonstrates the need for extended and
contiguous observing campaigns when aiming to detect low-amplitude Doppler
planets in short period orbits. Perhaps most critically it demonstrates that
the search for low-mass Doppler planets will eventually require these
traditional "bright-time" projects to extend throughout dark lunations.Comment: To appear in Ap
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