Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: We discuss the discovery and characterization of the circumbinary planet Kepler-38b. The stellar binary is single-lined, with a period of 18.8 days, and consists of a moderately evolved main-sequence star ( M A = 0.949 ± 0.059 M ☉ and R A = 1.757 ± 0.034 R ☉ ) paired with a low-mass star ( M B = 0.249 ± 0.010 M ☉ and R B = 0.2724 ± 0.0053 R ☉ ) in a mildly eccentric ( e = 0.103) orbit. A total of eight transits due to a circumbinary planet crossing the primary star were identified in the Kepler light curve (using Kepler Quarters 1–11), from which a planetary period of 105.595 ± 0.053 days can be established. A photometric dynamical model fit to the radial velocity curve and Kepler light curve yields a planetary radius of 4.35 ± 0.11 R ⊕ , or equivalently 1.12 ± 0.03 R Nep . Since the planet is not sufficiently massive to observably alter the orbit of the binary from Keplerian motion, we can only place an upper limit on the mass of the planet of 122 M ⊕ (7.11 M Nep or equivalently 0.384 M Jup ) at 95% confidence. This upper limit should decrease as more Kepler data become available.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
Authors: Jerome A. Orosz, William F. Welsh, Joshua A. Carter, Erik Brugamyer, Lars A. Buchhave, William D. Cochran, Michael Endl, Eric B. Ford, Phillip MacQueen, Donald R. Short, Guillermo Torres, Gur Windmiller, Eric Agol, Thomas Barclay, Douglas A. Caldwell, Bruce D. Clarke, Laurance R. Doyle, Daniel C. Fabrycky, John C. Geary, Nader Haghighipour, Matthew J. Holman, Khadeejah A. Ibrahim, Jon M. Jenkins, Karen Kinemuchi, Jie Li, Jack J. Lissauer, Andrej Prša, Darin Ragozzine, Avi Shporer, Martin Still, Richard A. Wade
Institutions: San Diego State University, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, McDonald Observatory, The University of Texas at Austin, University of Copenhagen, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Florida, University of Washington, Ames Research Center, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, University of Hawaii System, NASA Astrobiology Institute, Villanova University, California Institute of Technology, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, University of California, Santa Barbara, Pennsylvania State University
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: CAREER: Prospecting for planets, Critical Tests of Stellar Evolution Theory, Studies of Hot Subdwarf Stars in Binary Systems, THE P.I. PROPOSES TO CONTINUE TO USE STATE-OF-THE-ART TRANSIT MODELING SOFTWARE TO MEASURE THE PROPERTIES OF KEPLERDISCOVERED EXOPLANETS. THE P.I. WI, Stellar Astrophysics Via Exoplanet Transits, G6810591299
OpenAlex ID: W2095553020