A Neptune-mass exoplanet in close orbit around a very low-mass star challenges formation models

Stars and planetary system

Broadband Stability of the Habitable Zone Planet Finder Fabry-Pérot Etalon Calibration System: Evidence for Chromatic Variation

The comblike spectrum of a white light-illuminated Fabry-Pérot etalon can serve as a cost-effective and stable reference for precise Doppler measurements. Understanding the stability of these devices across their broad (hundreds of nanometers) spectral bandwidths is essential to realizing their full potential as Doppler calibrators. However, published descriptions remain limited to small bandwidths or short time spans. We present an ∼6 month broadband stability monitoring campaign of the Fabry-Pérot etalon system deployed with the near-infrared Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF) spectrograph. We monitor the wavelengths of each of ∼3500 resonant modes measured in HPF spectra of this Fabry-Pérot etalon (free spectral range = 30 GHz, bandwidth = 820-1280 nm), leveraging the accuracy and precision of an electro-optic frequency comb reference. These results reveal chromatic structure in the Fabry-Pérot mode locations and their evolution with time. We measure an average drift on the order of 2 cm s-1 day-1, with local departures up to ±5 cm s-1 day-1. We discuss these behaviors in the context of the Fabry-Pérot etalon mirror dispersion and other optical properties of the system and the implications for the use of similar systems for precise Doppler measurements. Our results show that this system supports the wavelength calibration of HPF at the ≲10 cm s-1 level over a night and the ≲30 cm s-1 level over ∼10 days. Our results also highlight the need for long-term and spectrally resolved study of similar systems that will be deployed to support Doppler measurement precision approaching ∼10 cm s-1. © 2021. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Immediate accessThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Real-time exposure control and instrument operation with the NEID spectrograph GUI

The NEID spectrograph on the WIYN 3.5-m telescope at Kitt Peak has completed its first full year of science operations and is reliably delivering sub-m/s precision radial velocity measurements. The NEID instrument control system uses the TIMS package (Bender et al. 2016), which is a client-server software system built around the twisted python software stack. During science observations, interaction with the NEID spectrograph is handled through a pair of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), written in PyQT, which wrap the underlying instrument control software and provide straightforward and reliable access to the instrument. Here, we detail the design of these interfaces and present an overview of their use for NEID operations. Observers can use the NEID GUIs to set the exposure time, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) threshold, and other relevant parameters for observations, configure the calibration bench and observing mode, track or edit observation metadata, and monitor the current state of the instrument. These GUIs facilitate automatic spectrograph configuration and target ingestion from the nightly observing queue, which improves operational efficiency and consistency across epochs. By interfacing with the NEID exposure meter, the GUIs also allow observers to monitor the progress of individual exposures and trigger the shutter on user-defined SNR thresholds. In addition, inset plots of the instantaneous and cumulative exposure meter counts as each observation progresses allow for rapid diagnosis of changing observing conditions as well as guiding failure and other emergent issues. © COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.Immediate accessThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Giant tidal tails of helium escaping the hot Jupiter HAT-P-32 b

Capturing planets in the act of losing their atmospheres provides rare opportunities to probe their evolution history. This analysis has been enabled by observations of the helium triplet at 10,833 angstrom, but past studies have focused on the narrow time window right around the planet's optical transit. We monitored the hot Jupiter HAT-P-32 b using high-resolution spectroscopy from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope covering the planet's full orbit. We detected helium escaping HAT-P-32 b at a 14σ significance,with extended leading and trailing tails spanning a projected length over 53 times the planet's radius. These tails are among the largest known structures associated with an exoplanet. We interpret our observations using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, which predict Roche Lobe overflow with extended tails along the planet's orbital path.ISSN:2375-254

Detection of p-mode Oscillations in HD 35833 with NEID and TESS

We report the results of observations of p-mode oscillations in the G0 subgiant star HD 35833 in both radial velocities and photometry with NEID and TESS, respectively. We achieve separate, robust detections of the oscillation signal with both instruments (radial velocity amplitude A RV = 1.11 ± 0.09 m s−1, photometric amplitude A phot = 6.42 ± 0.60 ppm, frequency of maximum power ν max = 595.71 ± 17.28 μHz, and mode spacing Δν = 36.65 ± 0.96 μHz) as well as a nondetection in a TESS sector concurrent with the NEID observations. These data shed light on our ability to mitigate the correlated noise impact of oscillations with radial velocities alone and on the robustness of commonly used asteroseismic scaling relations. The NEID data are used to validate models for the attenuation of oscillation signals for exposure times t < ν max − 1 , and we compare our results to predictions from theoretical scaling relations and find that the observed amplitudes are weaker than expected by >4σ, hinting at gaps in the underlying physical models. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

An Eccentric Brown Dwarf Eclipsing an M dwarf

We report the discovery of an M = 67 ± 2M J brown dwarf transiting the early M dwarf TOI-2119 on an eccentric orbit (e = 0.3362 ± 0.0005) at an orbital period of 7.200861 ± 0.000005 days. We confirm the brown dwarf nature of the transiting companion using a combination of ground-based and space-based photometry and high-precision velocimetry from the Habitable-zone Planet Finder. Detection of the secondary eclipse with TESS photometry enables a precise determination of the eccentricity and reveals the brown dwarf has a brightness temperature of 2100 ± 80 K, a value which is consistent with an early L dwarf. TOI-2119 is one of the most eccentric known brown dwarfs with P < 10 days, possibly due to the long circularization timescales for an object orbiting an M dwarf. We assess the prospects for determining the obliquity of the host star to probe formation scenarios and the possibility of additional companions in the system using Gaia EDR3 and our radial velocities. © 2022. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The Active Chromospheres of Lithium-rich Red Giant Stars* * Based on observations obtained with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

We have gathered near-infrared zyJ-band high-resolution spectra of nearly 300 field red giant stars with known lithium abundances in order to survey their He i λ10830 absorption strengths. This transition is an indicator of chromospheric activity and/or mass loss in red giants. The majority of stars in our sample reside in the red clump or red horizontal branch based on their V − J, M V color-magnitude diagram, and Gaia T eff and log(g) values. Most of our target stars are Li-poor in the sense of having normally low Li abundances, defined here as log ϵ(Li) &lt; 1.25. Over 90% of these Li-poor stars have weak λ10830 features. However, more than half of the 83 Li-rich stars (log ϵ(Li) &gt; 1.25) have strong λ10830 absorptions. These large λ10830 lines signal excess chromospheric activity in Li-rich stars; there is almost no indication of significant mass loss. The Li-rich giants may also have a higher binary fraction than Li-poor stars, based on their astrometric data. It appears likely that both residence on the horizontal branch and present or past binary interaction play roles in the significant Li-He connection established in this survey. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The Habitable-zone Planet Finder Detects a Terrestrial-mass Planet Candidate Closely Orbiting Gliese 1151: The Likely Source of Coherent Low-frequency Radio Emission from an Inactive Star

The coherent low-frequency radio emission detected by LOFAR from Gliese 1151, a quiescent M4.5 dwarf star, has radio emission properties consistent with theoretical expectations of star-planet interactions for an Earth-sized planet on a 1- to 5-day orbit. New near-infrared radial velocities from the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF) spectrometer on the 10 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory, combined with previous velocities from HARPS-N, reveal a periodic Doppler signature consistent with an m sin i = 2.5 ± 0.5M⊕ exoplanet on a 2.02-day orbit. Precise photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) shows no flares or activity signature, consistent with a quiescent M dwarf. While no planetary transit is detected in the TESS data, a weak photometric modulation is detectable in the photometry at a ∼2-day period. This independent detection of a candidate planet signal with the Doppler radial velocity technique adds further weight to the claim of the first detection of star-exoplanet interactions at radio wavelengths and helps validate this emerging technique for the detection of exoplanets. © 2021. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Immediate accessThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

A harsh test of far-field scrambling with the habitable-zone planet finder and the hobby–eberly telescope

The Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF) is a fiber-fed precise radial velocity (RV) spectrograph at the 10 m Hobby–Eberly Telescope (HET). Due to its fixed-altitude design, the HET pupil changes appreciably across a track, leading to significant changes of the fiber far-field illumination. HPF’s fiber scrambler is designed to suppress the impact of these illumination changes on the RVs—but the residual impact on the RV measurements has yet to be probed on-sky. We use GJ 411, a bright early type (M2) M dwarf to probe the effects of far-field input trends due to these pupil variations on HPF RVs. These large changes (∼2x) in the pupil area and centroid present a harsh test of HPF’s far-field scrambling. Our results show that the RVs are effectively decoupled from these extreme far-field input changes due to pupil centroid offsets, attesting to the effectiveness of the scrambler design. This experiment allows us to test the impact of these changes with large pupil variation on-sky, something we would not easily be able to do at a conventional optical telescope. While the pupil and illumination changes expected at these other telescopes are small, scaling from our results enables us to estimate and bound these effects, and show that they are controllable even for the new and next generation of RV instruments in their quest to beat down instrumental noise sources toward the goal of a few cm s-1. © 2021. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Immediate accessThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]