31 research outputs found
Orbital Parameter Determination for Wide Stellar Binary Systems in the Age of Gaia
The orbits of binary stars and planets, particularly eccentricities and
inclinations, encode the angular momentum within these systems. Within stellar
multiple systems, the magnitude and (mis)alignment of angular momentum vectors
among stars, disks, and planets probes the complex dynamical processes guiding
their formation and evolution. The accuracy of the \textit{Gaia} catalog can be
exploited to enable comparison of binary orbits with known planet or disk
inclinations without costly long-term astrometric campaigns. We show that
\textit{Gaia} astrometry can place meaningful limits on orbital elements in
cases with reliable astrometry, and discuss metrics for assessing the
reliability of \textit{Gaia} DR2 solutions for orbit fitting. We demonstrate
our method by determining orbital elements for three systems (DS Tuc AB, GK/GI
Tau, and Kepler-25/KOI-1803) using \textit{Gaia} astrometry alone. We show that
DS Tuc AB's orbit is nearly aligned with the orbit of DS Tuc Ab, GK/GI Tau's
orbit might be misaligned with their respective protoplanetary disks, and the
Kepler-25/KOI-1803 orbit is not aligned with either component's transiting
planetary system. We also demonstrate cases where \textit{Gaia} astrometry
alone fails to provide useful constraints on orbital elements. To enable
broader application of this technique, we introduce the python tool
\texttt{lofti\_gaiaDR2} to allow users to easily determine orbital element
posteriors.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
A Cautionary Tale: MARVELS Brown Dwarf Candidate Reveals Itself To Be A Very Long Period, Highly Eccentric Spectroscopic Stellar Binary
We report the discovery of a highly eccentric, double-lined spectroscopic
binary star system (TYC 3010-1494-1), comprising two solar-type stars that we
had initially identified as a single star with a brown dwarf companion. At the
moderate resolving power of the MARVELS spectrograph and the spectrographs used
for subsequent radial-velocity (RV) measurements (R ~ <30,000), this particular
stellar binary mimics a single-lined binary with an RV signal that would be
induced by a brown dwarf companion (Msin(i)~50 M_Jup) to a solar-type primary.
At least three properties of this system allow it to masquerade as a single
star with a very low-mass companion: its large eccentricity (e~0.8), its
relatively long period (P~238 days), and the approximately perpendicular
orientation of the semi-major axis with respect to the line of sight (omega~189
degrees). As a result of these properties, for ~95% of the orbit the two sets
of stellar spectral lines are completely blended, and the RV measurements based
on centroiding on the apparently single-lined spectrum is very well fit by an
orbit solution indicative of a brown dwarf companion on a more circular orbit
(e~0.3). Only during the ~5% of the orbit near periastron passage does the
true, double-lined nature and large RV amplitude of ~15 km/s reveal itself. The
discovery of this binary system is an important lesson for RV surveys searching
for substellar companions; at a given resolution and observing cadence, a
survey will be susceptible to these kinds of astrophysical false positives for
a range of orbital parameters. Finally, for surveys like MARVELS that lack the
resolution for a useful line bisector analysis, it is imperative to monitor the
peak of the cross-correlation function for suspicious changes in width or
shape, so that such false positives can be flagged during the candidate vetting
process.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 6 table
Very Low-Mass Stellar and Substellar Companions to Solar-Like Stars from MARVELS I: A Low Mass Ratio Stellar Companion to TYC 4110-01037-1 in a 79-day Orbit
TYC 4110-01037-1 has a low-mass stellar companion, whose small mass ratio and
short orbital period are atypical amongst solar-like (Teff ~< 6000 K) binary
systems. Our analysis of TYC 4110-01037-1 reveals it to be a moderately aged
(~<5 Gyr) solar-like star having a mass of 1.07 +/- 0.08 MSun and radius of
0.99 +/- 0.18 RSun. We analyze 32 radial velocity measurements from the
SDSS-III MARVELS survey as well as 6 supporting radial velocity measurements
from the SARG spectrograph on the 3.6m TNG telescope obtained over a period of
~2 years. The best Keplerian orbital fit parameters were found to have a period
of 78.994 +/- 0.012 days, an eccentricity of 0.1095 +/- 0.0023, and a
semi-amplitude of 4199 +/- 11 m/s. We determine the minimum companion mass (if
sin i = 1) to be 97.7 +/- 5.8 MJup. The system's companion to host star mass
ratio, >0.087 +/- 0.003, places it at the lowest end of observed values for
short period stellar companions to solar-like (Teff ~< 6000 K) stars. One
possible way to create such a system would be if a triple-component stellar
multiple broke up into a short period, low q binary during the cluster
dispersal phase of its lifetime. A candidate tertiary body has been identified
in the system via single-epoch, high contrast imagery. If this object is
confirmed to be co-moving, we estimate it would be a dM4 star. We present these
results in the context of our larger-scale effort to constrain the statistics
of low mass stellar and brown dwarf companions to FGK-type stars via the
MARVELS survey.Comment: 22 pages; accepted in A
TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME). X. A Two-planet System in the 210 Myr MELANGE-5 Association
Young (<500 Myr) planets are critical to studying how planets form and evolve. Among these young planetary systems, multiplanet configurations are particularly useful, as they provide a means to control for variables within a system. Here, we report the discovery and characterization of a young planetary system, TOI-1224. We show that the planet host resides within a young population we denote as MELANGE-5. By employing a range of age-dating methodsâisochrone fitting, lithium abundance analysis, gyrochronology, and Gaia excess variabilityâwe estimate the age of MELANGE-5 to be 210 ± 27 Myr. MELANGE-5 is situated in close proximity to previously identified younger (80â110 Myr) associations, Crius 221 and Theia 424/Volans-Carina, motivating further work to map out the group boundaries. In addition to a planet candidate detected by the TESS pipeline and alerted as a TESS object of interest, TOI-1224 b, we identify a second planet, TOI-1224 c, using custom search tools optimized for young stars (Notch and LOCoR). We find that the planets are 2.10 ± 0.09 Râ and 2.88 ± 0.10 Râ and orbit their host star every 4.18 and 17.95 days, respectively. With their bright (K = 9.1 mag), small (R* = 0.44 Râ), and cool (Teff = 3326 K) host star, these planets represent excellent candidates for atmospheric characterization with JWST
TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME) VII : Membership, rotation, and lithium in the young cluster Group-X and a new young exoplanet
The public, all-sky surveys Gaia and TESS provide the ability to identify new
young associations and determine their ages. These associations enable study of
planetary evolution by providing new opportunities to discover young
exoplanets. A young association was recently identified by Tang et al. and
F{\"u}rnkranz et al. using astrometry from Gaia (called "Group-X" by the
former). In this work, we investigate the age and membership of this
association; and we validate the exoplanet TOI 2048 b, which was identified to
transit a young, late G dwarf in Group-X using photometry from TESS. We first
identified new candidate members of Group-X using Gaia EDR3 data. To infer the
age of the association, we measured rotation periods for candidate members
using TESS data. The clear color--period sequence indicates that the
association is the same age as the Myr-old NGC 3532. We obtained
optical spectra for candidate members that show lithium absorption consistent
with this young age. Further, we serendipitously identify a new, small
association nearby Group-X, which we call MELANGE-2. Lastly, we statistically
validate TOI 2048 b, which is \rearth\ radius planet on a 13.8-day
orbit around its 300 Myr-old host star.Comment: Revised to correct error in reported planet radius (original: 2.1
Earth radii, corrected: 2.6 Earth radii) and units for planetary radius ratio
entries in Table 8. All data tables available open-access with the AJ articl
TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME). X. A Two-planet System in the 210 Myr MELANGE-5 Association
Young (<500 Myr) planets are critical to studying how planets form and evolve. Among these young planetary systems, multiplanet configurations are particularly useful, as they provide a means to control for variables within a system. Here, we report the discovery and characterization of a young planetary system, TOI-1224. We show that the planet host resides within a young population we denote as MELANGE-5. By employing a range of age-dating methodsâisochrone fitting, lithium abundance analysis, gyrochronology, and Gaia excess variabilityâwe estimate the age of MELANGE-5 to be 210 ± 27 Myr. MELANGE-5 is situated in close proximity to previously identified younger (80â110 Myr) associations, Crius 221 and Theia 424/Volans-Carina, motivating further work to map out the group boundaries. In addition to a planet candidate detected by the TESS pipeline and alerted as a TESS object of interest, TOI-1224 b, we identify a second planet, TOI-1224 c, using custom search tools optimized for young stars (Notch and LOCoR). We find that the planets are 2.10 ± 0.09 Râ and 2.88 ± 0.10 Râ and orbit their host star every 4.18 and 17.95 days, respectively. With their bright (K = 9.1 mag), small (R* = 0.44 Râ), and cool (Teff = 3326 K) host star, these planets represent excellent candidates for atmospheric characterization with JWST
TESS hunt for young and maturing exoplanets (THYME). X. A two-planet system in the 210 Myr MELANGE-5 association
Funding: P.C.T. was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1650116), the NC Space Grant Graduate Research Fellowship, the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship, and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship. A.W.M. was supported by grants from the NSF CAREER program (AST-2143763) and NASAâs exoplanet research program (XRP 80NSSC21K0393). M.G.B. was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE2040435) and the NC Space Grant Graduate Research Fellowship. F.J.P. acknowledges financial support from the grant CEX2021-001131-S funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/ 501100011033 and through projects PID2019-109522GB-C52 and PID2022-137241NB-C43. This research also received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unionâs Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 803193/BEBOP) and from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC; grant No. ST/S00193X/1). The postdoctoral fellowship of K.B. is funded by F.R.S.-FNRS grant T.0109.20 and by the Francqui Foundation. K.A.C. acknowledges support from the TESS mission via subaward s3449 from MIT. M.K. acknowledges support from the MIT Kavli Institute as a Juan Carlos Torres Fellow. This publication benefits from the support of the French Community of Belgium in the context of the FRIA Doctoral Grant awarded to M.T.Young (<500 Myr) planets are critical to studying how planets form and evolve. Among these young planetary systems, multiplanet configurations are particularly useful, as they provide a means to control for variables within a system. Here, we report the discovery and characterization of a young planetary system, TOI-1224. We show that the planet host resides within a young population we denote as MELANGE-5. By employing a range of age-dating methodsâisochrone fitting, lithium abundance analysis, gyrochronology, and Gaia excess variabilityâwe estimate the age of MELANGE-5 to be 210 ± 27 Myr. MELANGE-5 is situated in close proximity to previously identified younger (80â110 Myr) associations, Crius 221 and Theia 424/Volans-Carina, motivating further work to map out the group boundaries. In addition to a planet candidate detected by the TESS pipeline and alerted as a TESS object of interest, TOI-1224 b, we identify a second planet, TOI-1224 c, using custom search tools optimized for young stars (Notch and LOCoR). We find that the planets are 2.10 ± 0.09 Râ and 2.88 ± 0.10 Râ and orbit their host star every 4.18 and 17.95 days, respectively. With their bright (K = 9.1 mag), small (R* = 0.44 Râ), and cool (Teff = 3326 K) host star, these planets represent excellent candidates for atmospheric characterization with JWST.Peer reviewe
TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME) IX: a 27 Myr extended population of Lower-Centaurus Crux with a transiting two-planet system
We report the discovery and characterization of a nearby (~ 85 pc), older (27
+/- 3 Myr), distributed stellar population near Lower-Centaurus-Crux (LCC),
initially identified by searching for stars co-moving with a candidate
transiting planet from TESS (HD 109833; TOI 1097). We determine the association
membership using Gaia kinematics, color-magnitude information, and rotation
periods of candidate members. We measure it's age using isochrones,
gyrochronology, and Li depletion. While the association is near known
populations of LCC, we find that it is older than any previously found LCC
sub-group (10-16 Myr), and distinct in both position and velocity. In addition
to the candidate planets around HD 109833 the association contains four
directly-imaged planetary-mass companions around 3 stars, YSES-1, YSES-2, and
HD 95086, all of which were previously assigned membership in the younger LCC.
Using the Notch pipeline, we identify a second candidate transiting planet
around HD 109833. We use a suite of ground-based follow-up observations to
validate the two transit signals as planetary in nature. HD 109833 b and c join
the small but growing population of <100 Myr transiting planets from TESS. HD
109833 has a rotation period and Li abundance indicative of a young age (< 100
Myr), but a position and velocity on the outskirts of the new population, lower
Li levels than similar members, and a CMD position below model predictions for
27 Myr. So, we cannot reject the possibility that HD 109833 is a young field
star coincidentally nearby the population.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, Accepted for publication in A
The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in August 2008, with
new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical
evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of
galaxies and the quasar Ly alpha forest, and a radial velocity search for
planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of
SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release
includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg^2 in the Southern Galactic Cap,
bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg^2, or over a
third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with
an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric
recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data
from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and
Evolution (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars
at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million
stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed
through an improved stellar parameters pipeline, which has better determination
of metallicity for high metallicity stars.Comment: Astrophysical Journal Supplements, in press (minor updates from
submitted version