Bibcode
Lazorenko, P. F.; Sahlmann, J.; Ségransan, D.; Figueira, P.; Lovis, C.; Martin, E.; Mayor, M.; Pepe, F.; Queloz, D.; Rodler, F.; Santos, N.; Udry, S.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 527, id.A25
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3
2011
Journal
Citations
26
Refereed citations
20
Description
We observed VB 10 in August and September 2009 using the FORS2 camera of
the VLT with the aim of measuring its astrometric motion and of probing
for the presence of the announced planet VB 10b. We used the published
STEPS astrometric positions of VB 10 over a timespan of 9 years, which
allowed us to compare the expected motion of VB 10 due to parallax and
proper motion with the observed motion and to compute precise
deviations. The single-epoch precisions of our observations are about
0.1 mas, and the data showed no significant residual trend, while the
presence of the planet should have induced an apparent proper motion
greater than 10 mas yr-1. Subtraction of the predicted
orbital motion from the observed data produces a strong trend in
position residuals of VB 10. We estimated the probability that this
trend is caused by random noise. After taking all the uncertainties into
account and using Monte-Carlo resampling of the data, we are able to
reject the existence of VB 10b with the announced mass of 6.4
MJ with a false alarm probability of only 5 ×
10-4. A 3.2 MJ planet is also rejected with a
false alarm probability of 0.023.
Based on observations made with ESO telescopes at the La Silla Paranal
Observatory under programme ID 283.C-5024.