Bibcode
Deeg, H. J.; Doyle, L. R.; Kozhevnikov, V. P.; Martin, E. L.; Oetiker, B.; Palaiologou, E.; Schneider, J.; Afonso, C.; Dunham, E. W.; Jenkins, J. M.; Ninkov, Z.; Stone, R. P. S.; Zakharova, P. E.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.338, p.479-490 (1998)
Advertised on:
10
1998
Journal
Citations
62
Refereed citations
49
Description
Results from a photometric search for extrasolar planetary transits
across the eclipsing binary CM Dra are presented. The TEP (Transits of
Extrasolar Planets) network has observed this star since 1994, and a
lightcurve with 617 hours of coverage has been obtained. The data give a
complete phase coverage of the CM Dra system at each of the 3 years of
observations, with a noise of less than 5 mmag. New epoch and period
values for CM Dra are derived, and a low flare rate of 0.25 hr(-1) has
been confirmed. The absence of periodic variations in eclipse minimum
times excludes the presence of very massive planets with periods of less
than a few years. The lightcurve was visually scanned for the presence
of unusual events which may be indicative of transits of extrasolar
planets with 'massive earth' sizes. Six suspicious events were found
which are being followed up for future transits, by planets with sizes
between 1.5 and 2.5 RE (Earth Radii). However, none of these
events has amplitudes compatible with planets larger than 2.5
RE. Coplanar planets larger than 2.5 RE and with
orbital periods of less than 60 days can therefore be ruled out with a
confidence of about 80%. Planets smaller than 1.5 RE cannot
be detected in the data without a sub-noise detection algorithm. A
preliminary signal detection analysis shows that there is a 50%
detection confidence for 2 RE planets with a period from 10
to 30 days with the current data. This data-set demonstrates that it is
possible to detect terrestrial sized planets with ground based
photometry, and that strong constraints on the sizes of planets orbiting
in the plane of the CM Dra system can be set.