2 research outputs found
The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs, Wolf 1069 b: Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone of a nearby, very low-mass star
We present the discovery of an Earth-mass planet () on a 15.6d orbit of a relatively nearby (9.6pc)
and low-mass () M5.0V star, Wolf 1069. Sitting at a
separation of au away from the host star puts Wolf 1069b in
the habitable zone (HZ), receiving an incident flux of
. The planetary signal was detected using
telluric-corrected radial-velocity (RV) data from the CARMENES spectrograph,
amounting to a total of 262 spectroscopic observations covering almost four
years. There are additional long-period signals in the RVs, one of which we
attribute to the stellar rotation period. This is possible thanks to our
photometric analysis including new, well-sampled monitoring campaigns undergone
with the OSN and TJO facilities that supplement archival photometry (i.e., from
MEarth and SuperWASP), and this yielded an updated rotational period range of
d, with a likely value at d. The stellar
activity indicators provided by the CARMENES spectra likewise demonstrate
evidence for the slow rotation period, though not as accurately due to possible
factors such as signal aliasing or spot evolution. Our detectability limits
indicate that additional planets more massive than one Earth mass with orbital
periods of less than 10 days can be ruled out, suggesting that perhaps Wolf
1069 b had a violent formation history. This planet is also the 6th closest
Earth-mass planet situated in the conservative HZ, after Proxima Centauri b, GJ
1061d, Teegarden's Star c, and GJ 1002 b and c. Despite not transiting, Wolf
1069b is nonetheless a very promising target for future three-dimensional
climate models to investigate various habitability cases as well as for
sub-ms RV campaigns to search for potential inner sub-Earth-mass planets
in order to test planet formation theories.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figure
Future Exoplanet Research: Science Questions and How to Address Them
Started approximately in the late 1980s, exoplanetology has up to now
unveiled the main gross bulk characteristics of planets and planetary systems.
In the future it will benefit from more and more large telescopes and advanced
space missions. These instruments will dramatically improve their performance
in terms of photometric precision, detection speed, multipixel imaging,
high-resolution spectroscopy, allowing to go much deeper in the knowledge of
planets. Here we outline some science questions which should go beyond these
standard improvements and how to address them. Our prejudice is that one is
never too speculative: experience shows that the speculative predictions
initially not accepted by the community have been confirmed several years later
(like spectrophotometry of transits or circumbinary planets).Comment: Invited review, accepte