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Published May 1, 2017 | Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

An Earth-mass Planet in a 1 au Orbit around an Ultracool Dwarf

Abstract

We combine Spitzer and ground-based Korea Microlensing Telescope Network microlensing observations to identify and precisely measure an Earth-mass (1.43^(+0.45)_(-0.32) M⊕) planet OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb at 1.16^(+0.16)_(-0.13) au orbiting a 0.078^(+0.016)_(-0.012) M⊙ ultracool dwarf. This is the lowest-mass microlensing planet to date. At 3.91^(+0.42)_(-0.46) kpc, it is the third consecutive case among the Spitzer "Galactic distribution" planets toward the Galactic bulge that lies in the Galactic disk as opposed to the bulge itself, hinting at a skewed distribution of planets. Together with previous microlensing discoveries, the seven Earth-size planets orbiting the ultracool dwarf TRAPPIST-1, and the detection of disks around young brown dwarfs, OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb suggests that such planets might be common around ultracool dwarfs. It therefore sheds light on the formation of both ultracool dwarfs and planetary systems at the limit of low-mass protoplanetary disks.

Additional Information

© 2017 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2017 March 24; revised 2017 April 7; accepted 2017 April 10; published 2017 April 26. We thank D. Kirkpatrick for fruitful discussions about BDs. This work is based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. This research has made use of the KMTNet system operated by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) and the data were obtained at three host sites of CTIO in Chile, SAAO in South Africa, and SSO in Australia. Work by Y.S. and C.B.H. was supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, administered by Universities Space Research Association through a contract with NASA. Work by A.G., J.C.Y., and S.C.N. were supported by JPL grant 1500811. Work by A.G., W.Z., Y.K.J., and I.G.S. were supported by NSF grant AST-1516842. Work by C.H. was supported by Creative Research Initiative Program (2009-0081561) of National Research Foundation of Korea. Work by S.C.N. was supported by NExScI.

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Published - Shvartzvald_2017_ApJL_840_L3.pdf

Submitted - 1703.08548.pdf

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Created:
August 19, 2023
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October 25, 2023