ABSTRACT We present K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb, a densely sampled, planetary binary caustic-crossing microlensing event found from a blind search of data gathered from Campaign 9 of the Kepler K2 mission (K2C9). K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb is the first bound microlensing exoplanet discovered from space-based data. The event has caustic entry and exit points that are resolved in the K2C9 data, enabling the lens-source relative proper motion to be measured. We have fitted a binary microlens model to the Kepler data and to simultaneous observations from multiple ground-based surveys. Whilst the ground-based data only sparsely sample the binary caustic, they provide a clear detection of parallax that allows us to break completely the microlensing mass-position-velocity degeneracy and measure the planet’s mass directly. We find a host mass of 0.58 ± 0.04 M⊙ and a planetary mass of 1.1 ± 0.1 MJ. The system lies at a distance of 5.2 ± 0.2 kpc from Earth towards the Galactic bulge, more than twice the distance of the previous most distant planet found by Kepler. The sky-projected separation of the planet from its host is found to be 4.2 ± 0.3 au which, for circular orbits, deprojects to a host separation $a = 4.4^{+1.9}_{-0.4}$ au and orbital period $P = 13^{+9}_{-2}$ yr. This makes K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb a close Jupiter analogue orbiting a low-mass host star. According to current planet formation models, this system is very close to the host mass threshold below which Jupiters are not expected to form. Upcoming space-based exoplanet microlensing surveys by NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and, possibly, ESA’s Euclid mission, will provide demanding tests of current planet formation models.
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Kepler ’s last planet discoveries: two new planets and one single-transit candidate from K2 campaign 19
The Kepler space telescope was responsible for the discovery of over 2700 confirmed exoplanets, more than half of the total number of exoplanets known today. These discoveries took place during both Kepler’s primary mission, when it spent 4 yr staring at the same part of the sky, and its extended K2 mission, when a mechanical failure forced it to observe different parts of the sky along the ecliptic. At the very end of the mission, when Kepler was exhausting the last of its fuel reserves, it collected a short set of observations known as K2 Campaign 19. So far, no planets have been discovered in this data set because it only yielded about a week of high-quality data. Here, we report some of the last planet discoveries made by Kepler in the Campaign 19 dataset. We conducted a visual search of the week of high-quality Campaign 19 data and identified three possible planet transits. Each planet candidate was originally identified with only one recorded transit, from which we were able to estimate the planets’ radii and estimate the semimajor axes and orbital periods. Analysis of lower-quality data collected after low fuel pressure caused the telescope’s pointing precision to suffer revealed additional transits for two of these candidates, allowing us to statistically validate them as genuine exoplanets. We also tentatively confirm the transits of one planet with TESS. These discoveries demonstrate Kepler’s exoplanet detection power, even when it was literally running on fumes.
more » « less- PAR ID:
- 10510766
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Volume:
- 523
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0035-8711
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 474-487
- Size(s):
- p. 474-487
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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ABSTRACT CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) is an ESA S-class mission that observes bright stars at high cadence from low-Earth orbit. The main aim of the mission is to characterize exoplanets that transit nearby stars using ultrahigh precision photometry. Here, we report the analysis of transits observed by CHEOPS during its Early Science observing programme for four well-known exoplanets: GJ 436 b, HD 106315 b, HD 97658 b, and GJ 1132 b. The analysis is done using pycheops, an open-source software package we have developed to easily and efficiently analyse CHEOPS light-curve data using state-of-the-art techniques that are fully described herein. We show that the precision of the transit parameters measured using CHEOPS is comparable to that from larger space telescopes such as Spitzer Space Telescope and Kepler. We use the updated planet parameters from our analysis to derive new constraints on the internal structure of these four exoplanets.
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Abstract It is often assumed that the “Kepler dichotomy”—the apparent excess of planetary systems with a single detected transiting planet in the Kepler catalog—reflects an intrinsic bimodality in the mutual inclinations of planetary orbits. After conducting 600 simulations of planet formation followed by simulated Kepler observations, we instead propose that the apparent dichotomy reflects a divergence in the amount of migration and the separation of planetary semimajor axes into distinct “clusters.” We find that our simulated high-mass systems migrate rapidly, bringing more planets into orbital periods of less than 200 days. The outer planets are often caught in a migration trap—a range of planet masses and locations in which a dominant corotation torque prevents inward migration—which splits the system into two clusters. If clusters are sufficiently separated, the inner cluster remains dynamically cold, leading to low mutual inclinations and a higher probability of detecting multiple transiting planets. Conversely, our simulated low-mass systems typically bring fewer planets within 200 days, forming a single cluster that quickly becomes dynamically unstable, leading to collisions and high mutual inclinations. We propose an alternative explanation for the apparent Kepler dichotomy in which migration traps during formation lead to fewer planets within the Kepler detection window, and where mutual inclinations play only a secondary role. If our scenario is correct, then Kepler’s Systems with Tightly packed Inner Planets are a sample of planets that escaped capture by corotation traps, and their sizes may be a valuable probe into the structure of protoplanetary disks.
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