A nearby transiting rocky exoplanet that is suitable for atmospheric investigation
Name
2103.04950.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
6.08 MB
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Unknown
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Author(s)
Fausnaugh, Michael
Ricker, George R
Seager, Sara
Shporer, Abraham-Avi
Tenenbaum, Peter
Vanderspek, Roland K
Date Issued
March 2021
Journal
Science
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Spectroscopy of transiting exoplanets can be used to investigate their atmospheric properties and habitability. Combining radial velocity (RV) and transit data provides additional information on exoplanet physical properties. We detect a transiting rocky planet with an orbital period of 1.467 days around the nearby red dwarf star Gliese 486. The planet Gliese 486 b is 2.81 Earth masses and 1.31 Earth radii, with uncertainties of 5%, as determined from RV data and photometric light curves. The host star is at a distance of ~8.1 parsecs, has a J-band magnitude of ~7.2, and is observable from both hemispheres of Earth. On the basis of these properties and the planet's short orbital period and high equilibrium temperature, we show that this terrestrial planet is suitable for emission and transit spectroscopy.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/SCIENCE.ABD7645
