A hot terrestrial planet orbiting the bright M dwarf L 168-9 unveiled by TESS
Name
aa37179-19.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
4.61 MB
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Author(s)
Ricker, George R
Vanderspek, Roland K
Seager, Sara
Crossfield, Ian Jm
Essack, Zahra
Glidden, Ana
Guerrero, Natalia M.
Shporer, Abraham-Avi
Villasenor, Jesus Noel Samonte
Date Issued
2020
Journal
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Publisher
EDP Sciences
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© ESO 2020. We report the detection of a transiting super-Earth-sized planet (R = 1.39 ± 0.09 R⊕ ) in a 1.4-day orbit around L 168-9 (TOI-134), a bright M1V dwarf (V = 11, K = 7.1) located at 25.15 ± 0.02 pc. The host star was observed in the first sector of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. For confirmation and planet mass measurement purposes, this was followed up with ground-based photometry, seeing-limited and high-resolution imaging, and precise radial velocity (PRV) observations using the HARPS and Magellan/PFS spectrographs. By combining the TESS data and PRV observations, we find the mass of L 168-9 b to be 4.60 ± 0.56 M⊕ and thus the bulk density to be 1.74-0.33+0.44 times higher than that of the Earth. The orbital eccentricity is smaller than 0.21 (95% confidence). This planet is a level one candidate for the TESS mission's scientific objective of measuring the masses of 50 small planets, and it is one of the most observationally accessible terrestrial planets for future atmospheric characterization.
MIT Department
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 Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Space Research
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Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201937179
