Hugh R. A. Jones

Catalog of Nearby Exoplanets

We present a catalog of nearby exoplanets. It contains the 172 known low-mass companions with orbits established through radial velocity and transit measurements around stars within 200 pc. We include five previously unpublished exoplanets orbiting the stars HD 11964, HD 66428, HD 99109, HD 107148, and HD 164922. We update orbits for 83 additional exoplanets, including many whose orbits have not been revised since their announcement, and include radial velocity time series from the Lick, Keck, and Anglo-Australian Observatory planet searches. Both these new and previously published velocities are more precise here due to improvements in our data reduction pipeline, which we applied to archival spectra. We present a brief summary of the global properties of the known exoplanets, including their distributions of orbital semimajor axis, minimum mass, and orbital eccentricity.

A terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit around Proxima Centauri

At a distance of 1.295 parsecs, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri (α Centauri C, GL 551, HIP 70890 or simply Proxima) is the Sun’s closest stellar neighbour and one of the best-studied low-mass stars. It has an effective temperature of only around 3,050 kelvin, a luminosity of 0.15 per cent of that of the Sun, a measured radius of 14 per cent of the radius of the Sun and a mass of about 12 per cent of the mass of the Sun. Although Proxima is considered a moderately active star, its rotation period is about 83 days (ref. 3) and its quiescent activity levels and X-ray luminosity are comparable to those of the Sun. Here we report observations that reveal the presence of a small planet with a minimum mass of about 1.3 Earth masses orbiting Proxima with a period of approximately 11.2 days at a semi-major-axis distance of around 0.05 astronomical units. Its equilibrium temperature is within the range where water could be liquid on its surface.

Observed properties of exoplanets: Masses, orbits, and metallicities

precision (3 m s −1 ) and long duration. The 104 planets detected in this survey have minimum masses (M sin i )a s low as 6MEarth, orbiting between 0.02 and 6 AU. The core-accretion model of planet formation is supported by four observations: 1) The mass distribution rises toward the lowest detectable masses, dN /dM ∝ M −1.0 . 2) Stellar metallicity correlates strongly with the presence of planets. 3) One planet (1.3 MSat) has a massive rocky core, MCore ≈ 70 MEarth. 4) A super-Earth of ∼ 7 MEarth has been discovered. The distribution of semi-major axes rises from 0.3 – 3.0 AU (dN /d log a) and extrapolation suggests that ∼12% of the FGK stars harbor gas-giant exoplanets within 20 AU. The median orbital eccentricity .

MID-INFRARED PHOTOMETRY OF COLD BROWN DWARFS: DIVERSITY IN AGE, MASS, AND METALLICITY

Original article can be found at: http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/apj [Full text of this article is not available in the UHRA]

Two New Planets from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search

Precise Doppler measurements from the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) UCLES spectrometer reveal periodic Keplerian velocity variations in the stars HD 160691 and HD 27442. HD 160691 has a period of 743 days, a semiamplitude of 54 m s~1, and a high eccentricity, e \ 0.62, typical of extrasolar planets orbiting beyond 0.2 AU. The minimum (M sin i) mass of the companion is 1.97 and the M J , semimajor axis is 1.65 AU. HD 27442 has a 415 day period, a semiamplitude of 32 m s~1, and an eccentricity of 0.058. The minimum mass is 1.43 and the semimajor axis is 1.18 AU. This is the —rst M J , extrasolar planet orbiting beyond 0.2 AU that is in a circular orbit similar to solar system planets. The photon-limited precision of AAT/UCLES measurements i s3ms ~1 as demonstrated by stable stars and Keplerian —ts to planet-bearing stars. In addition, we present con—rmation of four previously announced planets.

ROTATIONAL VELOCITIES FOR M DWARFS

We present spectroscopic rotation velocities (v sin i) for 56 M dwarf stars using high-resolution Hobby-Eberly Telescope High Resolution Spectrograph red spectroscopy. In addition, we have also determined photometric effective temperatures, masses, and metallicities ([Fe/H]) for some stars observed here and in the literature where we could acquire accurate parallax measurements and relevant photometry. We have increased the number of known v sin i values for mid M stars by around 80% and can confirm a weakly increasing rotation velocity with decreasing effective temperature. Our sample of v sin is peak at low velocities (~3 km s–1). We find a change in the rotational velocity distribution between early M and late M stars, which is likely due to the changing field topology between partially and fully convective stars. There is also a possible further change in the rotational distribution toward the late M dwarfs where dust begins to play a role in the stellar atmospheres. We also link v sin i to age and show how it can be used to provide mid-M star age limits. When all literature velocities for M dwarfs are added to our sample, there are 198 with v sin i ≤ 10 km s–1 and 124 in the mid-to-late M star regime (M3.0-M9.5) where measuring precision optical radial velocities is difficult. In addition, we also search the spectra for any significant Hα emission or absorption. Forty three percent were found to exhibit such emission and could represent young, active objects with high levels of radial-velocity noise. We acquired two epochs of spectra for the star GJ1253 spread by almost one month and the Hα profile changed from showing no clear signs of emission, to exhibiting a clear emission peak. Four stars in our sample appear to be low-mass binaries (GJ1080, GJ3129, Gl802, and LHS3080), with both GJ3129 and Gl802 exhibiting double Hα emission features. The tables presented here will aid any future M star planet search target selection to extract stars with low v sin i.

First Results from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search: A Brown Dwarf Candidate and a 51 Peg-like Planet*

We report results from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search, a survey for planets around 200 solar-type stars in the southern hemisphere that is being carried out on the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope. Limiting Doppler precisions o f3ms ~1 have been demonstrated from the —rst 2.5 years of operation, making this the highest-precision planet search in the southern hemisphere. From these data we report

Four New Exoplanets and Hints of Additional Substellar Companions to Exoplanet Host Stars

We present four new exoplanets: HIP 14810b and HIP 14810c, HD 154345b, and HD 187123c. The two planets orbiting HIP 14810, from the N2K project, have masses of 3.9 and 0.76 M_J. We have searched the radial velocity time series of 90 known exoplanet systems and found new residual trends due to additional, long period companions. Two stars known to host one exoplanet have sufficient curvature in the residuals to a one planet fit to constrain the minimum mass of the outer companion to be substellar: HD 68988c with 8 M_J 8 yr. We have also searched the velocity residuals of known exoplanet systems for prospective low-amplitude exoplanets and present some candidates. We discuss techniques for constraining the mass and period of exoplanets in such cases, and for quantifying the significance of weak RV signals. We also present two substellar companions with incomplete orbits and periods longer than 8 yr: HD 24040b and HD 154345b with m sin i < 20 M_J and m sin i < 10 M_J, respectively.

Constraining the difference in convective blueshift between the components of alpha Centauri with precise radial velocities

New radial velocities of Cen A & B obtained in the framework the Anglo-Australian Planet Search programme as well as in the CORALIE programme are added to those by Endl et al. (2001) to improve the pre- cision of the orbital parameters. The resulting masses are 1:105 0:0070 M and 0:934 0:0061 M for A and B respectively. The factors limiting how accurately these masses can be derived from a combined visual-spectroscopic solution are investigated. The total eect of the convective blueshift and the gravitational redshift is also inves- tigated and estimated to dier by 215 8m s 1 between the components. This suggests that the dierence in convective blueshift between the components is much smaller than predicted from current hydrodynamical model atmosphere calculations.

A planetary system around the nearby M dwarf GJ 667C with at least one super-earth in its habitable zone

We re-analyze 4 years of HARPS spectra of the nearby M1.5 dwarf GJ 667C available through the European Southern Observatory public archive. The new radial velocity (RV) measurements were obtained using a new data analysis technique that derives the Doppler measurement and other instrumental effects using a least-squares approach. Combining these new 143 measurements with 41 additional RVs from the Magellan/Planet Finder Spectrograph and Keck/High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer spectrometers reveals three additional signals beyond the previously reported 7.2 day candidate, with periods of 28 days, 75 days, and a secular trend consistent with the presence of a gas giant (period ~10 years). The 28 day signal implies a planet candidate with a minimum mass of 4.5 M ⊕ orbiting well within the canonical definition of the stars liquid water habitable zone (HZ), that is, the region around the star at which an Earth-like planet could sustain liquid water on its surface. Still, the ultimate water supporting capability of this candidate depends on properties that are unknown such as its albedo, atmospheric composition, and interior dynamics. The 75 day signal is less certain, being significantly affected by aliasing interactions among a potential 91 day signal, and the likely rotation period of the star at 105 days detected in two activity indices. GJ 667C is the common proper motion companion to the GJ 667AB binary, which is metal-poor compared to the Sun. The presence of a super-Earth in the HZ of a metal-poor M dwarf in a triple star system supports the evidence that such worlds should be ubiquitous in the Galaxy.