The NASA-UC Eta-Earth Program. I. A Super-Earth Orbiting HD 7924
Abstract
We report the discovery of the first low-mass planet to emerge from the NASA-UC Eta-Earth Program, a super-Earth orbiting the K0 dwarf HD 7924. Keplerian modeling of precise Doppler radial velocities reveals a planet with minimum mass M_P sin i = 9.26 M_⊕ in a P = 5.398 d orbit. Based on Keck-HIRES measurements from 2001 to 2008, the planet is robustly detected with an estimated false alarm probability of less than 0.001. Photometric observations using the Automated Photometric Telescopes at Fairborn Observatory show that HD 7924 is photometrically constant over the radial velocity period to 0.19 mmag, supporting the existence of the planetary companion. No transits were detected down to a photometric limit of ~0.5 mmag, eliminating transiting planets with a variety of compositions. HD 7924b is one of only eight planets detected by the radial velocity technique with M_P sin i < 10 M_⊕ and as such is a member of an emerging family of low-mass planets that together constrain theories of planet formation.
Additional Information
© 2009 American Astronomical Society. Received 2008 October 31; accepted 2009 January 29; published 2009 April 13. Based on observations obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated jointly by the University of California and the California Institute of Technology. Keck time has been granted by both NASA and the University of California. We gratefully acknowledge the efforts and dedication of the Keck Observatory staff. We are also grateful to the time assignment committees of NASA, NOAO, and the University of California for their generous allocations of observing time. We acknowledge R. Paul Butler and S. S. Vogt for many years of contributing to the data presented here. A. W. H. gratefully acknowledges support from a Townes Post-doctoral Fellowship at the U. C. Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. J.A.J. is an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow and acknowledges support form NSF grant AST-0702821. G.W.M. acknowledges NASA grant NNX06AH52G. G.W.H. acknowledges support from NASA, NSF, Tennessee State University, and the State of Tennessee through its Centers of Excellence program. Finally, the authors wish to extend special thanks to those of Hawaiian ancestry on whose sacred mountain of Mauna Kea we are privileged to be guests. Without their generous hospitality, the Keck observations presented herein would not have been possible.Attached Files
Published - 0004-637X_696_1_75.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 36278
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130109-134701105
- UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory Townes Postdoctoral Fellowship
- AST-0702821
- NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Fellowship
- NNX06AH52G
- NASA
- Tennessee State University
- State of Tennessee Centers of Excellence program
- Created
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2013-01-09Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field