A Super-Earth Transiting a Naked-Eye Star
We have detected transits of the innermost planet "e" orbiting 55 Cnc (V = 6.0), based on two weeks of nearly continuous photometric monitoring with the MOST space telescope. The transits occur with the period (0.74 days) and phase that had been predicted by Dawson & Fabrycky, and with...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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IOP Publishing
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/71127 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4265-047X |
| _version_ | 1826200424472903680 |
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| author | Winn, Joshua Nathan Matthews, Jaymie M. Dawson, Rebekah I. Fabrycky, Daniel C. Holman, Matthew J. Kallinger, Thomas Kuschnig, Rainer Sasselov, Dimitar Dragomir, Diana Guenther, David B. Moffat, Anthony F. Rowe, Jason F. Rucinski, Slavek Weiss, Werner W. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Winn, Joshua Nathan Matthews, Jaymie M. Dawson, Rebekah I. Fabrycky, Daniel C. Holman, Matthew J. Kallinger, Thomas Kuschnig, Rainer Sasselov, Dimitar Dragomir, Diana Guenther, David B. Moffat, Anthony F. Rowe, Jason F. Rucinski, Slavek Weiss, Werner W. |
| author_sort | Winn, Joshua Nathan |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We have detected transits of the innermost planet "e" orbiting 55 Cnc (V = 6.0), based on two weeks of nearly continuous photometric monitoring with the MOST space telescope. The transits occur with the period (0.74 days) and phase that had been predicted by Dawson & Fabrycky, and with the expected duration and depth for the crossing of a Sun-like star by a hot super-Earth. Assuming the star's mass and radius to be 0.963+0.051 – 0.029 M ☉ and 0.943 ± 0.010 R ☉, the planet's mass, radius, and mean density are 8.63 ± 0.35 M ⊕, 2.00 ± 0.14 R ⊕, and 5.9(superscript +1.5) – 1.1 g cm(superscript –3), respectively. The mean density is comparable to that of Earth, despite the greater mass and consequently greater compression of the interior of 55 Cnc e. This suggests a rock-iron composition supplemented by a significant mass of water, gas, or other light elements. Outside of transits, we detected a sinusoidal signal resembling the expected signal due to the changing illuminated phase of the planet, but with a full range (168 ± 70 ppm) too large to be reflected light or thermal emission. This signal has no straightforward interpretation and should be checked with further observations. The host star of 55 Cnc e is brighter than that of any other known transiting planet, which will facilitate future investigations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:36:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/71127 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:36:15Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/711272022-09-27T20:38:45Z A Super-Earth Transiting a Naked-Eye Star Winn, Joshua Nathan Matthews, Jaymie M. Dawson, Rebekah I. Fabrycky, Daniel C. Holman, Matthew J. Kallinger, Thomas Kuschnig, Rainer Sasselov, Dimitar Dragomir, Diana Guenther, David B. Moffat, Anthony F. Rowe, Jason F. Rucinski, Slavek Weiss, Werner W. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Winn, Joshua Nathan Winn, Joshua Nathan We have detected transits of the innermost planet "e" orbiting 55 Cnc (V = 6.0), based on two weeks of nearly continuous photometric monitoring with the MOST space telescope. The transits occur with the period (0.74 days) and phase that had been predicted by Dawson & Fabrycky, and with the expected duration and depth for the crossing of a Sun-like star by a hot super-Earth. Assuming the star's mass and radius to be 0.963+0.051 – 0.029 M ☉ and 0.943 ± 0.010 R ☉, the planet's mass, radius, and mean density are 8.63 ± 0.35 M ⊕, 2.00 ± 0.14 R ⊕, and 5.9(superscript +1.5) – 1.1 g cm(superscript –3), respectively. The mean density is comparable to that of Earth, despite the greater mass and consequently greater compression of the interior of 55 Cnc e. This suggests a rock-iron composition supplemented by a significant mass of water, gas, or other light elements. Outside of transits, we detected a sinusoidal signal resembling the expected signal due to the changing illuminated phase of the planet, but with a full range (168 ± 70 ppm) too large to be reflected light or thermal emission. This signal has no straightforward interpretation and should be checked with further observations. The host star of 55 Cnc e is brighter than that of any other known transiting planet, which will facilitate future investigations. 2012-06-11T15:04:51Z 2012-06-11T15:04:51Z 2011-07 2011-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-8205 2041-8213 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/71127 Winn, Joshua N. et al. “A SUPER-EARTH TRANSITING A NAKED-EYE STAR.” The Astrophysical Journal 737.1 (2011): L18. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4265-047X en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/737/1/l18 Astrophysical Journal. Letters Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf IOP Publishing Prof. Winn via Mat Willmott |
| spellingShingle | Winn, Joshua Nathan Matthews, Jaymie M. Dawson, Rebekah I. Fabrycky, Daniel C. Holman, Matthew J. Kallinger, Thomas Kuschnig, Rainer Sasselov, Dimitar Dragomir, Diana Guenther, David B. Moffat, Anthony F. Rowe, Jason F. Rucinski, Slavek Weiss, Werner W. A Super-Earth Transiting a Naked-Eye Star |
| title | A Super-Earth Transiting a Naked-Eye Star |
| title_full | A Super-Earth Transiting a Naked-Eye Star |
| title_fullStr | A Super-Earth Transiting a Naked-Eye Star |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Super-Earth Transiting a Naked-Eye Star |
| title_short | A Super-Earth Transiting a Naked-Eye Star |
| title_sort | super earth transiting a naked eye star |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/71127 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4265-047X |
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