Bibcode
Ment, K.; Dittmann, Jason A.; Astudillo-Defru, Nicola; Charbonneau, David; Irwin, Jonathan; Bonfils, Xavier; Murgas, F.; Almenara, Jose-Manuel; Forveille, Thierry; Agol, Eric; Ballard, Sarah; Berta-Thompson, Zachory K.; Bouchy, François; Cloutier, Ryan; Delfosse, Xavier; Doyon, René; Dressing, Courtney D.; Esquerdo, Gilbert A.; Haywood, Raphaëlle D.; Kipping, David M.; Latham, David W.; Lovis, Christophe; Newton, Elisabeth R.; Pepe, Francesco; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Santos, Nuno C.; Tan, Thiam-Guan; Udry, Stephane; Winters, Jennifer G.; Wünsche, Anaël
Bibliographical reference
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 157, Issue 1, article id. 32, 13 pp. (2019).
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1
2019
Citations
93
Refereed citations
89
Description
LHS 1140 is a nearby mid-M dwarf known to host a temperate rocky
super-Earth (LHS 1140 b) on a 24.737-day orbit. Based on photometric
observations by MEarth and Spitzer as well as Doppler spectroscopy from
the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher, we report the
discovery of an additional transiting rocky companion (LHS 1140 c) with
a mass of 1.81 ± 0.39 M ⊕ and a radius of 1.282
± 0.024 R ⊕ on a tighter, 3.77795-day orbit. We
also obtain more precise estimates for the mass and radius of LHS 1140
b, which are 6.98 ± 0.89 M ⊕ and 1.727 ±
0.032 R ⊕. The mean densities of planets b and c are
7.5 ± 1.0 g cm‑3 and 4.7 ± 1.1 g
cm‑3, respectively, both consistent with the
Earth’s ratio of iron to magnesium silicate. The orbital
eccentricities of LHS 1140 b and c are consistent with circular orbits
and constrained to be below 0.06 and 0.31, respectively, with 90%
confidence. Because the orbits of the two planets are coplanar and
because we know from previous analyses of Kepler data that compact
systems of small planets orbiting M dwarfs are commonplace, a search for
more transiting planets in the LHS 1140 system could be fruitful. LHS
1140 c is one of the few known nearby terrestrial planets whose
atmosphere could be studied with the upcoming James Webb Space
Telescope.
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The search for life in the universe has been driven by recent discoveries of planets around other stars (known as exoplanets), becoming one of the most active fields in modern astrophysics. The growing number of new exoplanets discovered in recent years and the recent advance on the study of their atmospheres are not only providing new valuable
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