Hα Variability in PTFO8-8695 and the Possible Direct Detection of Emission from a 2 Million Year Old Evaporating Hot Jupiter
Abstract
We use high time cadence, high spectral resolution optical observations to detect excess Hα emission from the 2–3 Myr old weak-lined T Tauri star PTFO 8-8695. This excess emission appears to move in velocity as expected if it were produced by the suspected planetary companion to this young star. The excess emission is not always present, but when it is, the predicted velocity motion is often observed. We have considered the possibility that the observed excess emission is produced by stellar activity (flares), accretion from a disk, or a planetary companion; we find the planetary companion to be the most likely explanation. If this is the case, the strength of the Hα line indicates that the emission comes from an extended volume around the planet, likely fed by mass loss from the planet which is expected to be overflowing its Roche lobe.
Additional Information
© 2016 American Astronomical Society. Received 2015 September 14; revised 2016 May 11; accepted 2016 May 19; published 2016 October 3. L.P. and C.M.J.-K. wish to acknowledge partial support for this research from the NASA Origins of Solar Systems program through grant number 07-SSO07-86 made to Lowell Observatory. CMJ-K also wishes to acknowledge partial support for this work from the National Science Foundation through grant number 1212122 made to Rice University. This work was funded in part through the 2013–2014 NAU/NASA Space Grant Undergraduate Research Internship for Jacob N. McLane. Finally, we wish to thank an anonymous referee for several useful comments that improved the original manuscript.Attached Files
Published - Johns-Krull_2016_ApJ_830_15.pdf
Submitted - 1606.02701v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 70848
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20161005-072304972
- NASA
- 07-SSO07-86
- NSF
- AST-1212122
- Northern Arizona University
- NASA Space Grant Undergraduate Research Internship
- Created
-
2016-10-05Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Palomar Transient Factory, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)