Bibcode
Ivanyuk, O.; Pavlenko, Y. V.; Barnes, J. R.; Jones, M. I.; Hoyer, S.; Murgas, F.; Tuomi, M.; Jones, H. R. A.; Jenkins, J. S.; Pinfield, D. J.; Ruiz, M. T.; Day-Jones, A. C.; Jordán, A.; Rojo, P.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 766, Issue 2, article id. 67, 14 pp. (2013).
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2013
Journal
Citations
40
Refereed citations
36
Description
We announce the discovery of a low-mass planet orbiting the super
metal-rich K0V star HD 77338 as part of our ongoing Calan-Hertfordshire
Extrasolar Planet Search. The best-fit planet solution has an orbital
period of 5.7361 ± 0.0015 days and with a radial velocity
semi-amplitude of only 5.96 ± 1.74 ms–1, we find
a minimum mass of 15.9^{+4.7}_{-5.3} M ⊕. The best-fit
eccentricity from this solution is 0.09^{+0.25}_{-0.09}, and we find
agreement for this data set using a Bayesian analysis and a periodogram
analysis. We measure a metallicity for the star of +0.35 ± 0.06
dex, whereas another recent work finds +0.47 ± 0.05 dex. Thus HD
77338b is one of the most metal-rich planet-host stars known and the
most metal-rich star hosting a sub-Neptune-mass planet. We searched for
a transit signature of HD 77338b but none was detected. We also
highlight an emerging trend where metallicity and mass seem to correlate
at very low masses, a discovery that would be in agreement with the core
accretion model of planet formation. The trend appears to show that for
Neptune-mass planets and below, higher masses are preferred when the
host star is more metal-rich. Also a lower boundary is apparent in the
super metal-rich regime where there are no very low mass planets yet
discovered in comparison to the sub-solar metallicity regime. A Monte
Carlo analysis shows that this low-mass planet desert is statistically
significant with the current sample of 36 planets at the ~4.5σ
level. In addition, results from Kepler strengthen the claim for this
paucity of the lowest-mass planets in super metal-rich systems. Finally,
this discovery adds to the growing population of low-mass planets around
low-mass and metal-rich stars and shows that very low mass planets can
now be discovered with a relatively small number of data points using
stable instrumentation.
Based on observations collected at the La Silla Paranal Observatory, ESO
(Chile) with the HARPS spectrograph on the ESO 3.6 m telescope,
under the program IDs 079.C-0927, 081.C-0148, 087.C-0368, and
088.C-0662.
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