Bibcode
Melo, C.; Santos, N. C.; Pont, F.; Guillot, T.; Israelian, G.; Mayor, M.; Queloz, D.; Udry, S.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 460, Issue 1, December II 2006, pp.251-256
Advertised on:
12
2006
Journal
Citations
51
Refereed citations
47
Description
Results of photometric surveys have brought to light the existence of a
population of giant planets orbiting their host stars even closer than
the hot Jupiters (HJ), with orbital periods below 3 days. The reason why
radial velocity surveys were not able to detect these very-hot Jupiters
(VHJ) is under discussion. A possible explanation is that these close-in
planets are short-lived, being evaporated on short time-scales due to UV
flux of their host stars. In this case, stars hosting transiting VHJ
planets would be systematically younger than those in the radial
velocity sample. We have used the UVES spectrograph (VLT-UT2 telescope)
to obtain high resolution spectra of 5 faint stars hosting transiting
planets, namely, OGLE-TR-10, 56, 111, 113 and TrES-1. Previously
obtained CORALIE spectra of HD189733, and published data on the other
transiting planet-hosts were also used. The immediate objective is to
estimate ages via Li abundances, using the Ca II activity-age relation,
and from the analysis of the stellar rotational velocity. For the stars
for which we have spectra, Li abundances were computed as in Israelian
et al. (2004, A&A, 414, 601) using the stellar parameters derived in
Santos et al. (2006, A&A, 450, 825). The chromospheric activity
index S_US was built as the ratio of the flux within the core of the Ca
II H & K lines and the flux in two nearby continuum regions. The
index S_US was calibrated to Mount Wilson index S_MW allowing the
computation of the Ca II H & K corrected for the photospheric
contribution. These values were then used to derive the ages by means of
the Henry et al. (1996) activity-age relation. Bearing in mind the
limitations of the ages derived by Li abundances, chromospheric
activity, and stellar rotational velocities, none of the stars studied
in this paper seem to be younger than 0.5 Gyr.