Non-detection of Previously Reported Transits of HD 97658b with MOST Photometry
Abstract
The radial velocity-discovered exoplanet HD 97658b was recently announced to transit, with a derived planetary radius of 2.93 ± 0.28 R_⊕. As a transiting super-Earth orbiting a bright star, this planet would make an attractive candidate for additional observations, including studies of its atmospheric properties. We present and analyze follow-up photometric observations of the HD 97658 system acquired with the Microvariability and Oscillations of STars space telescope. Our results show no transit with the depth and ephemeris reported in the announcement paper. For the same ephemeris, we rule out transits for a planet with radius larger than 2.09 R_⊕, corresponding to the reported 3σ lower limit. We also report new radial velocity measurements which continue to support the existence of an exoplanet with a period of 9.5 days, and obtain improved orbital parameters.
Additional Information
© 2012 American Astronomical Society. Received 2012 April 13; accepted 2012 October 11; published 2012 October 25. Based on data from the MOST satellite, a Canadian Space Agency mission operated by Microsatellite Systems Canada Inc. (MSCI; former Dynacon Inc.) and the Universities of Toronto and British Columbia, with the assistance of the University of Vienna. We thank Heather Knutson, Peter McCullough, and David Anderson for helpful conversations, as well as the many observers who contributed to the measurements reported here. We are thankful to the referee, Dan Fabrycky, for his comments and suggestions which have significantly improved this manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge the efforts and dedication of the Keck Observatory staff, especially Scott Dahm, Hien Tran, and Grant Hill for support of HIRES and Greg Wirth for support of remote observing. We 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. D.D. is supported by a University of British Columbia Four Year Fellowship. Funding for the Stellar Astrophysics Centre (SAC) is provided by The Danish National Research Foundation and research is supported by the ASTERISK project (ASTERoseismic Investigations with SONG and Kepler) funded by the European Research Council (grant agreement No. 267864). The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada supports the research of D.B.G., J.M.M., A.F.J.M., and S.M.R. Additional support for A.F.J.M. comes from FQRNT (Québec). R.K. and W.W.W. were supported by the Austrian Science Fund (P22691-N16) and by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency-ALR.Attached Files
Published - 2041-8205_759_2_L41.pdf
Files
| Name | Size | Download all |
|---|---|---|
|
md5:55ef170b7e7e55c581127bebcff4eee6
|
1.0 MB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 35899
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20121211-082050010
- University of British Columbia
- Danish National Research Foundation
- 267864 ASTERISK
- European Research Council (ERC)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT)
- P22691-N16
- FWF Der Wissenschaftsfonds
- Austrian Research Promotion Agency-ALR
- Created
-
2012-12-11Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field